We Are Espada
by Aaroniero Arruruie
Summary: The Espada have aided in the destruction of Aizen. Aaroniero nearly died in the battle, and the only links to the the old espada are himself and Cirucci. When Aizen created the Espada, he had to eliminate the originals. Now the Former Cero has returned.
1. Chapter 1

"The fuck ya mean, Aizen's dead, ya fuckin' light bulb?" shouted Nnoitra, straight into the glowing red tank that contained Aaroniero's twin heads. The soft red glow given off suffused Nnoitra's face and tinted the the white walls of Las Noches the color of blood.

"_**Aizen-sama has fallen**_." chanted the two heads simaltaniously, the resulting voice irritating because of the clashing tones, and Nnoitra had to control himself to keep from breaking the Noveno's faces.

"Don't call him sama no more, he don't deserve it. He finally started pushin' daisies, and don't give me any bullshit sayin' he was a good guy an' shit, he was a royal fuckin' douchebag." yelled Nnoitra, loud enough that the guest at the end of the hall could hear him. There was a grunt as the hulking form of Yammy stomped towards them, and a corpse was flung at Nnoitra's feet. There was so much blood it was impossible to tell who it had been.

"The fuck is this, ya giant fucktard? A damn morgue?" asked Nnoitra, kicking the corpse away, blood staining his pointed shoes. It landed with a dull thud ten meters back the way Yammy had come.

"That was some unlucky dumbass I found on the way here. Some Ichigo Kurosaki...I beat the living crap outta him. Wasn't too hard, he was half dead already." said the giant, grinning like an idiot. Nnoitra really hated him, he was such a damn retard that he couldn't brush his damn teeth without Ulquiorra there to tell him how.

"I don't fuckin' care who ya fight when yer free, fucktard. What I want to know is where the fuck everyone else is!" howled Nnoitra, throwing Santa Teresa through the wall, then dragging it back by its chain.

"_Starrk, Harribel and myself helped defeat Aizen_. **Barragan, Ulquiorra, and Grimmjow are dead**._ I consumed Zommari and gained his power_." stated Aaroniero, speaking in tandem, and stepping between the Diaz and Quinta.

"Ya fuckin' serious? We're all that's left? And the hell'd ya eat Zommari for, anyway?" asked Nnoitra, not really caring about the answer. He was more concerned with the fact the the shinigami might return...but wait. Starrk, Harribel, and Aaroniero had helped them, so that wasn't so likely.

"**The fool was almost dead**. _I don't see why I shouldn't have_." said Aaroniero's voices, and pulling the glove covering Glotoeria, his Zanpakuto, tighter.

"Tch. The fuck do I care anyway. He was a dumbass. So the fuck we do now?" asked Nnoitra as he turned from the Diaz and Noveno.

"**That is technically Yammy's to decide, but he doesn't care to, and Starrk is too lazy, so **_Harribel is left among us_." pointed out Aaroniero. Nnoitra turned.

"What?" asked Nnoitra dumbly.

"**But since she is currantly being treated for her injuries**, _we will defer to you for the _**time being**." explained Aaroniero. Nnoitra took a moment to take that in. It wasn't every day you took command without a fight. Nnoitra had no idea what to say, so he just said something.

"Everyone go do somethin' fer a couple hours...meet in the old meetin' place. If ya can, keep a tab on any arrancars still hangin' around. Now get the hell outta here..." he said as he turned on his heel and walked away, passing by the corpse of Kurosaki.

Aaroniero left Yammy in the hall, using sonido to flash back to his room, leaving the Diaz to wonder what he was in such a hurry for, then deciding that he didn't care, left for his own room.

Aaroniero appeared outside his door, surprized to find it slightly ajar. He stepped inside quickly, eager to get out of the sunlight. He closed the door, cutting off the beam of sun that leaked through the portal. The darkness settled thickly all around Aaroniero. A normal man would have been blinded by the oppressive gloom, but his twin heads had spent their whole afterlife in such heavy blackness, making it seem like the sun shone brightly within his palace.

Aaroniero stepped further into his home, each footfall ringing off of the high ceiling, making a resounding echo, which, besides the swishing of his clothes and the sound of air bubbles in his tank, was the only sound.

This was his temple. A tribute to the dark and secretive nature he had become known for. This was also his ideal battleground, there was no light here, no way to see through his greatest technique. It was here that he was at full power, when the rest of Las Noches was enshrouded in vile sunlight, his palace was inviolate.

Finally, Aaroniero came to where he kept his personal effects. And the source of a conundrum he had been facing since his consumption of Zommari.

That being Brujeria, the former septima's zanpakuto. Aaroniero lifted it from it's place on his bed, examining it for the tenth time since gaining it from that fool. It stayed with him, even when he was in the sun, he had tested it. It stayed when even Kaien Shiba's Nejibana would disappear. It also disturbed Aaroniero that he could not transform into Zommari, yet he could feel the septima's power boiling beneath the surface, again even in the sun.

Brujeria's blade and grip had changed as well, the blade growing an additional foot, with the tip flattening out, and the grip losing all color, becoming a pure white. Aaroniero, in fact, felt the blade had been made for him alone, instead of that idiot Zommari.

Aaroniero stood straighter, feeling a small riatsu nearing the door of his palace, he used sonido to reach the door, standing to the side. The door opened, and a female serving arrancar stepped in, at first looking the opposite direction from Aaroniero.

"_How can I help you_?" his child voice asked the newcomer. The woman must have lept nine feet in the air.

"A-Aaroniero-sama! Nnoitra-sama requests your presence in the meeting room." she said, pointedly looking away from Aaroniero's twin heads, fixing her eyes on the floor.

"**Why**? _Nnoitra gave me leave to _**do as I wished for an hour or so**._ What does he want_?" asked Aaroniero, grabbing the woman and using sonido to bring her to his bedroom. He searched around for the sheath that went with Brujeria. The woman was quite ruffled by the sudden change in surroundings.

"Wh-what? Where am I, Aaroniero-sama?" she gasped as she fell over, nearly gagging from the high speeds at which the Noveno had trasported her.

"_In my palace_. **Now what does Nnoitra want**?" he repeated, finding the sheath on the top of the bed and buckling it on, then placing Brujeria within. He then turned to the woman.

"Ah, yes, forgive me. Nnoitra-sama said that it was a problem that only you could fix, something to do with an intruder in the meeting room." she said, looking around almost blindly, only able to see Aaroniero by the soft red glow from his tank.

"_I see_. **Come with me then**." he said as he used sonido to return to the entrace to his palace, seeing as she could most likely never be able to find her way out without him. She fell over again, clutching her stomach and groaning. It took her a few moments to get back up, and when she did, she stumbled a few steps and promtly vomited before stumbling away.

"Ha ha, I always knew you had a way with women, Aaroniero." said a feminine voice from behind him. He didn't have to turn around to know who it was. Aaroniero began what would be a very long walk.

"**Greetings, Cirucci**."

Di Roy stalked the halls of Las Noches, noticing the lack of other arrancars. Most others were dead, some of the Espada among them. Only that bat-shit crazy Szayelapporo Granz, that hottie Harribel and her Fraccion, the freak Aaroniero, that creep Nnoitra, the idiot Yammy, and the lazy ass Starrk were left of them.

That suited Rinker just fine. He was sick of all of them anyway, they had all looked down on him, called him a weakling. Especially that jackass Grimmjow. His grip tightened on the sheath of his zanpakuto, Serpentra. He was nearing the site where Kurosaki had killed the bastard. It might be worth his time to go waste it a little.

The sixteenth arrancar turned and leapt out a window, suspending himself in the air with his rietsu. The remaining arrancars had not gotten around to rebuilding the area, and Rinker doubted that the clean up crews would mind if he reduced some of the larger chunks of rubble to dust.

Di Roy took a moment to admire the scene. The spires of Las Noches were in ruins from where Grimmjow and Kurosaki had went at it, and after the fight and now they lay in ruins where they had toppled. Grimmjow's ashes were in there somewhere.

Rinker hoped he got some of them.

He removed the bandages from around the left side of his face, revealing the scars in his mask. Scars that Grimmjow had given him, so long ago now. The bastard had taken a chunk out of his face when Rinker was still a Adjuchas, making him unable to progress to Vasto Lorde and halting his development as an arrancar early.

A blue light played in front of his left eye as he charged his cero, aiming for a sizable chunk of stone, flying closer for a better shot, seeing as he was still quite far away. A smile crossed his face, displaying his squarish teeth as he released his cero. The blue beam turned the rubble into rock dust, leaving a small crater. He floated down to the ground, charging another cero and blasting another crater.

Rinker drew his zanpakuto. He figured now was as good a time as any to try.

"Shed, Serpentra!" he yelled, feeling a rise in his spiritual power, and nothing else. Rinker cursed. Why wasn't it working? Why was he the only arrancar not able to acess his release? All he got was a sharp spike in his rietsu, nothing else. He knew he was using the right release word, it was instintive, and when he tried any other word, nothing happened.

Was he really that weak? Maybe that Szayel's older brother was right. Maybe he was only an arrancar in name. He resheathed Serpentra and shoved it in his belt. Normally he liked to carry it in his hands, but he had no desire to hold it after another failure.

The only conclution he had ever come to was that the bite Grimmjow took out of him must have done more damage than he thought. He had thought about asking Aizen about forcing his release using the hougyoku, but even the thought of being in the same room as Aizen gave Di Roy the creeps, even more so than Nnoitra. So he suffered in silence, managing to keep his secret from everyone, but he was still the weakling of the group.

Rinker hated the idea of being weak. Here he was, one of the only battle worthy arrancars left, unable to release his true power. It was total bullshit, he knew serving arrancars who had a release. Granted, his power was more than enough to beat them, but the fact remains.

He sighed, turning his head to the sky, seeing the result of Kurosaki's fight with that badass Ulquiorra. It turns out that Ulquiorra had the exact opposite situation than Rinker, having an _extra_ release. Rinker wished he had that kind of power, he was in awe of the strength required to develop a second release, and he knew that Grimmjow must have hated Ulquiorra for that strength, not some supposed weakness.

In fact, Di Roy had never belived the sexta espada when he said that he was stronger than Ulquiorra, harboring a deep respect for the Cuatro espada. Not many people could stand to hang around Aizen for so long, not to mention Yammy. The lucky bastard even got the job of taking care of Orihime Inoue.

He had even scored with her.

If Ulquiorra had survived, Rinker would most likely have gravitated to him for answers, and for his strength. But Ulquiorra had died. So had Aizen. Now there were no answers.

Di Roy Rinker, the sixteenth arrancar, was doomed to death if the soul reapers ever decided to finish the arrancars off. There was no way he could beat any competant soul reaper, he would most likely be used as a meat shield, while the remaining espada tried to defend Las Noches.

Doomed. It was strangely comforting. It gave no shock of fear, no nervous twitch. Nothing. Di Roy couldn't stop it, so what was the point in worrying?

His hand on the hilt of Serpentra, Rinker began the walk back to his room.

Sun-sun, Apacci, and Mila Rose had all gathered in Harribel's room, along with Starrk's Fraccion Lilinette, and of course, Harribel, who had just finished her treatment by the nurses. At first, they were all talking girl shit, like who was the most attractive arrancar, the general vote being that Starrk was the best looking guy, while everyone present agreed that Tia was the hottest girl, with the exeption of Harribel herself, who passed that baton to Lilinette, who blushed bright red, before everyone else gathered around her began telling her how pretty she was.

It was now two hours later, and Lilinette was curled up on Harribel, the little girl's face buried in Tia's neck. Now Apacci and Mila Rose were arguing quietly about who would get Starrk first.

"I bet I could get him in bed in a few seconds, not even a problem!" whispered Mila. Apacci snorted.

"Yeah right, he wants a woman, not some crazy whore."

"Shut the fuck up flat chest! You know you've went more rounds Edorad than I went with Ilfort!" seethed Mila Rose, poking Apacci between the eyes.

"Like hell!"

"Denial!"

Sun-sun could tell things were getting out of hand, soon there would be an all out brawl going on in their mistress' room. Luckily, Harribel was there to shut them up.

"Can't you two argue about this some other time? And one: neither of you went all the way more than twice, trust me, Grimmjow told me about both of you. Two: getting Starrk in bed is easy. It's getting him to the sex that would be hard." said Harribel. Both Fraccions stared at their mistress in shock. She knew? Sun-sun brought her overlarge sleeve to her mouth to cover her smile.

"What about Sun-sun?" said Apacci, causing Sun-sun's smile to fade.

"I don't care to say."

The room was quiet. For a moment. Peals of laughter came from the other fraccion, causing Lilinette to shift on Harribel's lap.

"What?" asked Sun-sun, frowning and crossing her arms.

"You must have had someone really embarrassing then, like...like..." Apacci couldn't even finish her sentance, she was laughing too hard. Sun-sun threw a pillow at her, using her other sleeve to hide her blush. She looked to Harribel for support, but couldn't get an expression because of the huge coller of Tia's jacket.

"No!"

Mila Rose managed to suppress her giggles.

"Don't listen to her, I actually think it's kind of nice Yammy gets some." she asked, and Sun-sun felt three pairs of eys on her, and she was sure Lilinette was awake and listening.

"Oooo, she wants someone like Szayel." said Mila.

"But isn't he gay?" asked Sun-sun, getting drawn in despite herself.

"Like hell. He was with Thunderwitch how long before they cut it off. Hasn't dated since." said Harribel. Someone knocked on the door, before the door opened, revealing Neliel and Orihime, the latter of which clutched her swollen belly. The subject at hand was immediatly dropped as the newcomers entered.

During the exchange of greetings, Sun-sun slipped out of the room. She knew that the subject would just be reiterated soon, and she really did not want it to go any farther right now. Harribel had seen her go, and nodded in understanding.

Sun-sun ghosted through the halls of Las Noches. Any other time she would have stayed, seeing that she enjoyed the company of the pregnant Orihime, but Apacci and Mila Rose had ruined her mood today. She had no doubt they were even now talking about her.

Sun-sun gritted her teeth, trying to resist the urge to go back to the door and listen.

Tried and failed.

Within seconds, she had her ear on the door.

"...the whole thing." came Nel's voice.

"Who's going to be the, you know, the guy?" asked Mila. Sun-sun clenched her fist, she just knew that they would be talking about this. She pressed her ear tighter against the door.

"I was thinking Szayelapporo. He's not as creepy when you get to know him, I think she'll like him." said Orihime. Sun-sun's jaw dropped. Even Orihime? Did she really have to get involved in her love life, or lack thereof?

Apacci gave a lewd description of how Sun-sun got her action. Of course none of it was true but it was still embarassing. Sun-sun wanted to wring that bitch's neck. She took her ear away from the door, and started walking away. She wanted to get away from them before she did something she would regret.

Sun-sun walked briskly down the hallway, away from the source of her frustration.

Harribel sighed, making everyone in the room look at her.

"I think you should really keep it down." she said, looking at the other women.

"Why? This is pretty fun." said Apacci, giggling with Mila Rose because of the images that were going through their heads from their latest joke about Sun-sun's sex life.

"Because next time you see Sun-sun, she won't be too happy with you." Mila and Apacci looked at each other.

"What?" they asked at the same time.

"She was standing outside the door until a couple seconds ago." said Tia, smiling behind her coller.

"AND YOU DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING? SHE'S GOING TO THROW A TOTAL BITCHFIT!" yelled Apacci, waking up Lilinette.

"Not my problem, you're going to have to deal with it." They looked at each other again.

"Shit." said Mila Rose. Nel and Orihime were falling over each other laughing.


	2. Chapter 2

Aaroniero's bottom head turned to the side in order to follow the purple haired privaron as she stepped up beside him. Cirucci was, as usual, wearing a white dress with moth wings on the back. A small smile graced her face, and her purple eyes were gleaming as if she were concealing a joke that would be sprung on him at any moment. She carried her zanpakuto, golondrina in her left hand, the giant yo-yo like head resting on the hilt.

Aaroniero had gotten quite used to Cirucci over the years. She had been the diaz espada in the days of the first generation of arrancars. Then that buffoon Yammy had stolen it from her. In truth, Aaroniero had often thought about requesting that Aizen make Yammy the full time cero espada, and reinstate Cirucci as the diaz. But he had never quite gotten the courage.

"I never knew that your sonido was so...impressive, Aaroniero. You actually made her throw up! I don't even think that Zommari ever did anything like that!" she chirped, raising a hand and tapping on the glass of Aaroniero's tank twice. He ignored the taps, she did that whenever they met, and he had since grown used to the over loud _conk! conk!_ her gloved knuckle made on the glass.

"**Yes, my consumption of Zommari **_has made my sonido almost too much for me to _**handle**. **It has also caused me a few other conundrums as well**..." he related, waiting for Cirucci to...

A sharp intake of breath and a sharp shriek. There it was, Cirucci's signiture You-Just-Made-Me-Happy-As-Hell scream. He had heard it many times in the time he had known her, such as the time she had nearly shattered his tank with a ball, making it rebound and knock over a set of pins set up in a hallway, thus making her win the game she was playing with another arrancar. That had been the only time he had stopped her from tapping on his tank, for fear it would really break.

"YES! That bastard is finally dead! He was _so_ creepy, I mean he would sit there and stare at me for as long as he could! WAIT A SECOND YOU ATE HIM? Have you ever eaten an arrancar before? I didn't know you could actually _do_ that...HOW DO YOU FEEL?" Cirucci screamed as she began to examine Aaroniero, from heads to toe. Aaroniero tried to pry the woman off of him, failed, tried to take a few steps back, and succeeded in getting tangled in Cirucci's feet, making them fall in an awkward heap on the floor.

"_Did I ever give you a reason to doubt that I was fine_? **Now get off me**, _I've got to go see Nnoitra at the meeting room_." said Aaroniero as Cirucci giggled and picked herself up, dusting off the skirt of her dress and reaching up to adjust her hair.

"Don't pretend you didn't like it." she said sarcasticly, and putting on a exaggerated pout as she turned away from him.

"I just wanted to be sure my Aaroniero was feeling good for his visit with the Quinta..." she said in a whining voice that, on any other woman, Aaroniero would have taken as an attempt to get him to apologize for making it seem like he was putting work ahead of her.

But this was Cirucci. In this situation you needed to handle her like an explosive with it's timer stopped at half a microsecond, in other words, say nice things and hope she didn't blow up in your face.

"**Do you want to come too**? **It appears that there are intruders in the meeting room**, _and Nnoitra wants me to take care of them_. _Maybe a good fight for you_." he told her, and soon he saw the floor rushing up to meet him as he was glomped by Cirucci, then he was being dragged by one of his legs. It was another one of her calling cards, the I-Want-To-Go-Right-Now-So-I'm-Going-To-Knock-You-Out-And-Drag-You. Aaroniero had been hit with this at least once a month ever since he had met her, usually when she wanted him to come out of his palace for dinner, or when she wanted company that didn't consist of a gay guy and someone stuck in the 1970's.

"_Cirucci_, _I think I know how to walk_. **And i can get us there faster with my sonido**." he pointed out as Cirucci continued to drag him. She stopped, grabbed his hand, and dragged him to his feet. She hung onto his hand in a deathgrip.

"Let's go, I wanna see how fast you can really go!" she said, closing her eyes tight and waiting. Aaroniero had a wicked idea. He powered up to full and used his sonido. She shrieked, loudly, when they reached the meeting room.

"Holy..._shit_. I think...I'm gonna...ugh..." she groaned, bending double and vomiting on the floor. Aaroniero's top head laughed, while the bottom head watched every second before joining it's twin. Cirucci looked up, giving Aaroniero a dirty look before breaking out in giggles.

"I think I brought that on myself." she said through her giggles. She straightened up, and fell into uncontrolable laughter.

"Not tha' this ain't fuckin' cute or anythin', but we got a problem." said Nnoitra, coming out of the shadows near the door. He had a frown on his face.

"**Yes, your messinger said something about intruders in the meeting chamber**." said Aaroniero, stepping up to the door to the meeting room.

"Ya. There's a psycho arrancar bitch in there tha' won' stop screamin' shit about ya when ya open the door." stated the quinta, and then with a sarcastic tone, "Looks like yer gettin' popular wi' the ladies, don't it, night light?"

"More than you, jackass." said Cirucci, flipping off the tall espada. It was a well known fact that Nnoitra was not fond of the idea of women having power, and he would go out of his way to humiliate any one of the female arrancars, such as the time he dumped a bowl of steaming hot stew down Melony's blouse, making her scream bloody murder until she got out of the dining hall. Rumors had it that she had to visit Szayelaporro twice daily for three weeks in order to cure the livid burn.

"Tha' you, Thunderwitch? Didn't recognize ya without that funny face you were makin' for a couple weeks..." Nnoitra shot back, refering to the time he had caught Cirucci stretching out for a practice round with one of the other Privarion. She had been doing jumping jacks, when Nnoitra came behind her and kicked her in between the legs. She had dropped like a stone, wailing. Aaroniero had gotten Nnoitra back for her though, convincing Aizen to file sexual harrassment charges on Nnoitra. Needless to say Nnoitra spent a couple weeks getting the shit beat out of him by Tousen.

Aaroniero opened the door, leaving Cirucci and Nnoitra to their own dispute. Immediatly he was forced to draw Brujeria as another blade decended with the intent of shattering his tank. The blade was almost carelessly knocked aside, and out of the owner's hands, by Brujeria. Aaroniero then caught the flying sword with one of Glotoria's tenticles.

The now disarmed attacker took a few steps back, allowing Aaroniero to identify the attacker.

Standing a few feet in front of him was the nearest thing he had ever had to a fraccion. Easily identified by her skimpy schoolgirl outfit and violet eyes, Loly stood with her sides heaving in fear, before she recognized the ninth espada. She leapt forward, throwing her arms around Aaroniero's tank. He was quite suprized to see tears rolling down her face.

"Oh my god, is it finally over? Is Aizen dead...tell me he's dead..." she sighed, before passing out.

Di Roy could hear it, it called him. It was both a pleasant music and a cloying, coaxing smell. It drew him to it.

It was dark all around him, and it felt as if he were flying. He took a step forward, and he felt the music and smell grow tenfold, drawing him into a run. The music was still getting louder, the scent stronger, it was... beautiful. Just as the thought crossed his mind, the music and smell faded away.

_Di Roy..._

"What the..." he whispered, looking for the voice.

_Not out there...in here..._ said the voice.

"So I'm talking to myself now?"

_No, you're talking to me._

Di Roy looked around again, drawing his zanpakuto.

_How do you plan to kill me? Even if you found me, you're too weak._

"We'll see about that." he said, not wanting to be thought weak by a simple voice in his head.

_Di Roy...I've always been stronger than you. Ever since we met._

_ Di Roy..._

"What do you want?" Di Roy was getting tired of the voice. He wished he would just wake up so it would leave him alone.

_ To kill you..._

The power keeping him afloat disappeared. Di Roy tried to keep himself aloft with his rietsu, but he couldn't. The exact opposite happened, he was slammed down at the dark all around him.

_ Di Roy...you're going to die._

_ It is fate._

_ I will kill you. _

Di Roy sat straight up in his bed, tearing the bandages off of his face, and reaching for Serpentra. He charged his cero, looking for the intruder in his room. It took him a moment to figure out it was a dream, and when he did, he swore and released the Cero's energy.

Rinker took a moment to compose himself before dragging himself out of the bed. He shoved Serpentra in his belt, pulling on his white jacket, leaving it open like he usually did.

Di Roy has ceased to be disturbed by the dreams after the third night in a row he had them. They usually ended in the same way, with the voice threatening to kill him. He had no clue why the dreams were happening, maybe a result of his inability to release his zanpakuto, the voice mocking him for his handicap.

So in other words he couldn't even escape it in his dreams.

It isn't fair, he thought as he left his room to walk the halls again. No arrancar really needed sleep, most of them did it as a habit, or in Starrk's case, a hobby. But Rinker did it because he was tired of having to think about how weak he was.

Rinker put all thoughts of his dreams out of his mind. He couldn't do anything about them anyway.

Again the halls were nearly devoid of other arrancars. He wished that some of the others had survived, like Shawlong. He had been the only one of Grimmjow's Fraccion that had never called him weak, Di Roy even thought Shawlong understood why he was so underdeveloped as an arrancar. Understood it wasn't his fault Grimmjow took a bite out of him.

"What's the long face for, Rinker? Still moping over Grimmjow?" Di Roy cringed at the voice, knowing who it was without needing to look at the owner.

"What do you want, Tesra?" Di Roy was in no mood for dealing with the Fifth's Fraccion, the guy had a habit of getting on the nerves of anyone around him, even Nnoitra.

"Why do I need a reason to see my good pal Di Roy and say hi?"

"Shut up. You're no friend of mine, so get the hell out of here. Go bother a serving girl." Di Roy said shortly, wishing he had taken a different route, but he kept walking, hoping Tesra would take his advice.

No such luck.

Tesra moved straight into Rinker's path, forcing him to stop.

"Watch what you say, weakling. Not everyone is as tolerant of incompetantce as Grimmjow." snarled Tesra, reaching for his zanpakuto.

"The fuck are you doin' Tesra? Stop messing with this trash and get the hell over here right fuckin' now!" came a voice from the other end of the hall.

"This isn't over weakling." said Tesra, then he sprinted down the hallway.

"Coming, master Nnoitra!" Di Roy snorted as Tesra ran to the fifth espada, and the glare Nnoitra gave him made Di Roy almost feel sorry for Tesra. Nnoitra gave his fraccion a hard shove in the back, but Rinker didn't stay to watch Nnoitra beat the shit out of him.

He had better things to do.

Sun-Sun sat in her room, waiting for the enevitable visit of either Mila Rose or Apacci. Maybe both. She knew one would come, she had heard Apacci scream somthing about someone throwing a "bitchfit". It was the term that Apacci usually used when Sun-sun was in a bad mood, or when any woman around her was in a bad mood.

And there was only one person who would be throwing one so soon after she was telling rude stories about Sun-sun. And that would be Sun-sun.

Someone knocked at the door. Sun-sun didn't lift a finger to answer the it. The knock came again, but this time the door opened, revealing Mila Rose.

"Sun-sun, there you are. I've been looking for you." she said softly, looking at the floor. _At least she's ashamed of herself_, thought Sun-sun, not even responding to her.

Mila stepped into the room, taking a seat on the bed next to Sun-sun. She tried to put an arm around Sun-sun's shoulders, but it was shrugged off as soon as it made contact.

"Come on, Sun-sun. It's nothing that we don't do to everyone else." said Mila, laying a hand on Sun-sun's arm.

"Is that supposed to make me feel better?" Said Sun-sun acidly, turning her face away from Mila.

"Apacci says she's sorry." Continued Mila Rose, trying a different tack.

"So what. Let her tell me herself, when she means it."

"Sun-sun, that's not fair. She means it, she just didn't think you would want to see her."

"I don't." Mila poked Sun-sun in the ribs.

"Oh, come on, I know you don't mean that. We're all sisters, maybe not by blood, but sisters all the same."

"Prove it."

"Alright. What about when Edorad dumped Apacci? She was sobbing for hours on end, and you were right there as soon as you heard about it. You sat there for nine hours. You came out soaked. And don't think she didn't appreciate it. She may be too proud to admit it, but she adores you for it. If that's not sisters, what is?"

Sun-sun stayed silent. She knew Mila was right, but was too stubborn to admit it.

"You want me to keep going? What about when Tesra was stalking me? It was really scary having that guy on your ass all day and night. It was hard to sleep, knowing he was right outside my door. I was afraid to shower, thinking he might be there. But when I finally told someone, it was you. Not Harribel. Not Apacci. You. And you remember what you did?

Despite herself, Sun-sun smiled, raising her sleeve to cover it.

"He's wearing that eyepatch for a reason." And he was. Sun-sun had been furious, tearing Las Noches apart just to find him. Needless to say, only a timely intervention from Nnoitra had saved him, along with Syazelapporo's lab.

"Yes he is. And I will never forget it." Mila drew Sun-sun into a bear hug.

"You know I hate it when you do that." said Sun-sun, trying to look mad, but unable to stop herself from smiling again, not even covering it with her sleeve, to her mind looking rather unladylike.

"That's what you say, but that smile says something else."

"Well, um...Shut up." Mila Rose had known that Sun-sun would not have any idea how to respond, which was why she said it.

"By the way, how did you get Orihime in on it?" asked Sun-sun. Mila was taken aback.

"Orihime? She was on a totally different topic with Harribel and Nel. She was saying that she thought Szayelapporo would be a nice daddy for Miyuzu."

"What? I thought she was trying to set me up with him, you even jumped in, that's why I thought you were all on the same topic."

"Yeah I jumped in once or twice."

"Oh...Mila?"

"Yeah?"

"Miyuzu?"

"Yeah, Orihime's convinced she's going to have a girl, and she already named her Miyuzu." explained Mila Rose, scooting closer to Sun-sun and drawing out a closed letter.

"What's this?" asked Sun-sun, sticking a finger under the seal. Mila Rose neglected to answer as the letter was torn open. Sun-sun plucked a bright colored card from the envalope, which read _Orihime's baby ball_, and inside was a picture of a very pregnant Orihime, and a date two months in the future, and

Sun-sun,

You are invited to my baby ball! Come in formalwear and bring a dance partner!

See you there,

Orihime

"When was this decided?" asked Sun-sun, covering her smile with her sleeve.

"Harribel thought it was a good idea, but it came from Lilinette. And it's already decided that Lilinette is bringing Starrk, and Orihime has called Szayel. Neliel asked Nnoitra."

"Don't they hate each other?" asked Sun-sun, surprized at the Fifth. He didn't seem the type to let a grudge go.

"Not anymore. Anyway, Orihime sent invites to the soul socity, so there will be a couple captains here. Harribel is bringing Captain Hitsugaya. Apacci asked Uryu Ishida."

"What about you?"

"I'm asking Renji Abarai, but what about you? Who are you asking?" asked Mila Rose.

"I don't know. Is there anyone not taken?" asked Sun-sun, frowning. "I feel like I'm getting last pick."

"Yeah, you're pretty much the last person to pick, Orihime forgot to send yours, Rukia someone or other's, Ichigo Kurosaki's, Rangiku Matsumoto's, and someone called Chad's. Apperantly it turns out that Rukia and Ichigo will be coming as a couple, same as Rangiku and Chad. So you're pretty much on your own."

"I wonder if I should just go alone...pick off Starrk when Lilinette isn't looking." said Sun-sun, smiling playfully as Mila Rose gave her a shove.

"Absolutly not! We'll find you someone, maybe Harribel can help. Maybe we can find you a nice captain to go with!"

"Let's go see, maybe!"

Mila Rose smiled. If there was anything she had learned about Sun-sun over the years, it was that she was not easy to anger, but even if you manage to get her angry, she wouldn't stay mad long if you gave her some mushy speech about how you thought about her. And it helped that she had meant every word of it.

Sun-sun walked down the hall, going back to her mistress' room.


	3. Chapter 3

Di Roy began re-wrapping his bandage around his head. He had forgotten to do it after his dream, and had been glad for it when Tesra had showed up.

"That old rumor had better be right..." he mumbled to himself as he tied his bandage back in place. He again stalked the halls of Las Noches, uninterupted by idiots like Tesra. He was happy that most arrancars stayed away from this area, as it had quite the reputation.

The halls were dark in this part of the fortress, despite the white walls you were met with almost anywhere in Las Noches. This was where Szayelapporo Granz made his lair.

He had heard from Shawlong that Ilfort's younger brother had been able to restore the bite Grimmjow had taken out of him, using some sort of healing insects. Maybe the mad scientist could be persuaded to use them on him. Maybe that would allow him to finish his development as an arrancar.

He was still lost in his thoughts when he slammed into a large-breasted female arrancar.

"Oh...sorry about that." she said, taking a step back from Di Roy.

"No, it's my fault." he said as he stepped aside to let her pass. That was when he noticed her companion, who seemed to have withdrawn into herself. He made an after you motion.

She raised a sleeve to cover her face before passing him. The other woman smiled and followed. Di Roy found it odd that they were here. Unless they had rooms on the other side of the fortress' throne room, there was no need to go through here.

Rinker started walking again, shoving the women from his thoughts as he came upon Szayelaporro's door. He knocked twice and opened the door.

"Now, I believe it's polite to wait for the door to be opened before you enter." came a smooth, cultured male voice from the back of the room. Rinker could see that the scientist had not even looked up from his experiment.

"It couldn't wait." said Di Roy, taking more steps into the room. He had to quash a feeling of uneasiness as Szayel looked up.

"Really, what could it be? Just what do you have that could be important enough to interrupt me?" drawled Szayel, moving the organs around in the body of some poor arrancar. It didn't take long for Di Roy to figure out that the arrancar was dead or asleep.

"This." said Rinker, pulling the bandages off of his eye. Szayelapporo Granz took one look and smiled.

"I see. Just let me finish up here and we'll talk." Szayel looked back down.

"I can wait." said Di Roy sitting on the floor.

"Who was that?" asked Mila, watching the man walk down the hall towards the lab of Szayelaporro.

"I don't know..." said Sun-sun, holding a sleeve to her face.

"What's that sound?"

"What sound? I don't hear anything." said Sun-sun. Mila could tell that she wasn't really paying attention. Time to fix that.

"Sounds like...someone's screaming." Sun-sun jumped in the air, before moving at a dead run for Harribel's room.

"That's more like it." whispered Mila as she followed the footsteps ringing down the hall.

Sun-sun blushed furiously under her sleeve. She really hated it when Mila Rose or anyone else said anything like that near Szayel's lab. Usually she would fly off the handle and run away like she had earlier. she knew about the Octava and his experiments and didn't want to be around for any of them .

Her blush deepened as she neared Harribel's room, and she figured she would take the time to let it fade before she went in. She took a couple deep breaths, feeling the heat in her face melt away.

Feeling better, Sun-sun went into her mistress' room, but was surprized when Mila Rose was already there.

"Why, hello there slowpoke. I was sure that last time I saw you, you were orgasming over some random arrancar in the hallway, what was his name again?" asked Mila, looking at Harribel.

"Di Roy Rinker. He was one of Grimmjow's fraccions." supplied Tia, wearing a guarded expression. "And from what Mila Rose tells me, he's most likely tired of Grimmjow's mark."

"What do you mean?" asked Sun-sun.

"Sounds like it's time I told you something about Grimmjow's Fraccions..."

"Interesting. Very interesting." said Szayel, watching as his insects "healed" the gashes in Di Roy's mask remnants.

"Is it working?" Di Roy asked, feeling as if something was wrong. His head felt lighter, his link to his power was growing heavy. He felt...weaker. This most definately should not be happening.

"I don't know, per say, but I think I have an explaination. You will most likely feel weaker for now, what I have just done has never been done before." said Szayelaporro proudly, as he closely examined the effects of the healing gashes.

"What the fuck did you do to me?" screamed Rinker as he felt Serpentra dissolve in his hand.

"I didn't think this could even happen, much less that it could be triggered by a sudden removal of a limiter!" Szayel tried to explain before being cut off by Rinker.

"The fuck does that mean?" screamed Rinker as he felt his power begin to build again.

"It means, Rinker, that you are evolving by regression." said Szayel, pissing Rinker off with the cryptic answer.

"Speak the damn king's english!" he howled as the octava's continued useless answers wore his patience to nothing.

"I have just successfully rebooted the Arrancar development process, at the same time making the reitsu you already have fold in upon itself, making you into somthing more that what you were. I can't exactly be sure, but I think you have evolved into a Vasto Lorde. It remains to be seen what new form you will take..." Di Roy was speechless.

"A Vasto Lorde?" he whispered to himself. Memories rose unbidden in his mind, of himself, Shawlong, Ilfort, Nakim, and Edorad, searching throughout Hueco Mundo for powerful Hollows in order to devour, in hopes of attaining that level.

"Yes, a Vasto Lorde. And you will soon become an arrancar again, so expect to undergo the espada evaluation." Rinker sat straight up. He was about to say something, when he noticed his arms.

There were bandages hanging off of them.

"The fuck?" The bandages on his arms were brown and ragged, but the rest of his body was a sterling gold color, with bands of blue and red. He shifted the bandages on his arms, and found the same gold color ran down his arms.

"A mirror. Give me a mirror." said Rinker as he felt omething forming around his face. Szayel gave him one.

Rinker gasped. His face was being slowly encased in the same gold, the teeth picked out in silver, with a large headress edged in the same blue and red. The eyes were outlined in onyx.

"Don't get used to it. Your mask will break in a few minutes, and your power will begin to increase exponentaly." Rinker smiled behind his new mask.

"When will my Zanpakuto come back?"

"In a few hours, just like the first time you went through this."

"Good. About time I was able to release my power."

"What?"

"Nothing...nothing at all..."

Sun-sun looked away from Harribel.

"So Grimmjow took a bite out of him just because he wanted to? Not to defend himself? Not to..." Sun -sun was cut off by Harribel.

"Not quite. He did it because, in his own perverted way, he cared for them. He bit them so that they would never revert to gillians."

"But that also means they would never get stronger..." said Sun-sun, looking back to her mistress.

"Exactly. They would never get stronger than him." Sun-sun was stunned. Why would anyone make it so that someone couldn't get any stronger, just so they themselves would be stronger than those people?

She asked Tia the same question.

"It's complicated. Maybe Grimmjow had an inferiority complex. Or maybe he thought one would try to kill him. There are quite a few reasons anyone would do something like that."

"But you said he cared for them." said Mila Rose, off to the side, but still listening to what was being said.

"True. In his own perverted way. He cared enough for that he never wanted to see them be better than him." replied Harribel, looking to Mila, and then back to Sun-sun.

"That doesn't even make sense!" yelled Sun-sun.

"Indeed not. But I don't see why you should get so worked up over this, unless you _like_ _him_." It didn't have to be said who he was. Sun-sun lifted her sleeve, covering the intense blush on her face. The man whose name was Di Roy Rinker was, even after Harribel's story, a mystery. She didn't know him at all. The only thing that drew her to him was a _feeling_. She couldn't explain it, it was like a moth being drawn to a flame.

"I guess..." sighed Sun-sun, the blush on her face deepening. This was never a topic she had discussed with Tia, although Apacci, Mila Rose, and Cirucci Thunderwitch had all done so in front of Sun-sun.

"Would you like to know where his room is?" asked Tia, getting up from her seat. Sun-sun let her arm drop, displaying her cherry blush.

"Yes! I mean...please, I mean if you want to..." Even though Harribel's expression was masked behind her collar, Mila Rose was smiling. Sun-sun's blush deepened even further, making her feel as if her face was boiling.

"Yes, I believe I do. Come with me." Tia turned and went out of her door. Sun-sun followed, but Mila Rose stayed for awhile, before leaving to look for Apacci.

Sun-sun followed Harribel in a daze, barely regestering her surroundings as she daydreamed about Di Roy. Was he a total jackass like Grimmjow? She hoped not, she didn't think she could handle that. On the other hand, maybe he was every girl's dream, that knight-in-shining-armor that every woman had dreams about. Sun-sun didn't really think so, no man was that perfect, but she was free to dream. The only thing she really wanted out of him was that he not be like Nnoitra, creepy and perverted. She didn't think so. He had been such a gentleman the first time they met, stepping aside and waiting for them to go by, when he could have been a jerk and just plowed his way through them.

"Sun-Sun...Sun-sun? Sun-sun!" yelled Harribel, waving a hand in front of Sun-sun's face.

"Wh-what? I was't paying attention...sorry." stammered Sun-sun, her face turning red again, making her bring her sleeve to her face. She could tell that Harribel was smiling behind that giant collar, her eyes were smiling.

"No problem...We're here." she said, pointing at a door that they had stopped in front of.

"Thank you, Tia. Do you...do you think I should go in?"

"Do what you want. Starrk needed me to watch Lilinette today. But just because I'm not there to back you up doesn't mean you can break any of my three rules."

"Okay...but what are they?" Harribel looked at her as if she had grown a second head.

"Didn't I ever tell you?"

"No..." Harribel sighed.

"Good thing I have a chance to then. Alright. Tia Harribel's three rules to a first date. Do not kiss, suck, nor fuck on the first date. You can and most likely will break the first one, and that's okay, but breaking the second one labels you as desprate, and breaking the third makes you a whore. Got it?" asked Harribel, staring deep into Sun-sun's eyes.

"...Yeah..."

"Repeat them."

"Do not kiss, suck, nor fuck on the first date, on pain of being labeled desprate or a whore."

"Good. Now have fun." said Harribel as she sonidoed away, leaving Sun-sun alone.

Sun-sun waited outside his door for ten minutes, trying to work up the courage to knock. She finally raised a hand, and was just about knock when a shadow fell across her.

"Can I help you?"

Aaroniero had not expected a run in with Loly, to say the least. He was sure that Aizen had killed her when he had seen Aaroniero with the force set on killing him. The only conclution he could come to was that Aizen had used the power of his zanpakuto to control what he saw and thus make it easier to take Aaroniero out of the fight. However, the result was quite different, he had instead flown into a killing rage, releasing Glotoria, transforming into Kaien Shiba and releasing his Shikai.

Aaroniero had no clue what had caused that bout of suicidal rage. He had never really had any feeling towards Loly before her fake death, but he must have some somewhere, because charge to his near death he had. He had been quite lucky the girl Inoue had been there to heal him and fix his tank.

He glanced at the woman passed out in his arms. Her head lay on his shoulder, and her arms were limp at her sides. The tenticle that held her zanpakuto began to retract, placing the blade back in it's sheath before retracting fully.

Aaroniero lifted Loly bridal style and carried her out the door. He was not surprised in the least to find Nnoitra and Cirucci, (and he noticed Tesra, passed out on the floor.) at each other's throats. He walked past them, and they continued to argue, until they noticed what had just happened. Had they really just seen Aaroniero, carrying a woman in a schoolgirl outfit, with her face buried where his neck would be, and was he holding her bridal style? The arguement stopped dead, and for once Nnoitra couldn't think of an insult, Cirucci just flipped him off and followed Aaroniero.

"When he said 'psycho arrancar bitch' I didn't think he meant Loly, Aaroniero." said Cirucci as soon as Nnoitra was out of sight.

"_Niether did I. Personally, I was_ **quite sure she was dead**." he replied, shifting his top head to address her.

"Why would you think that? It's not like she was at the battle with Aizen...was she?" Cirucci asked, trying to examine Loly for injuries, but finding none.

"_Not quite_. **I believe that Aizen manipulated me into believing that**." explained the noveno, as he lugged Loly back to her room. He could have used sonido, but he was afraid of the effect that might have on Loly in her currant state.

"Why would he do that?" asked Cirucci, walking up closer to Aaroniero. The top head once again adjusted to track her, but it hesitated to answer. It was a little known fact that Aaroniero actually had two brains bound under a common personality. As a result, he could follow two trains of thought at once without being distracted from one by the other, or he could bind both heads to the same task, and when he did this he was on par with the intelligence of Ulquiorra or Aizen, and in fact one of his favorite passtimes was speaking to the now dead Cuatro in a manner more befitting a debate. It took all of that intelligence to come up with a suitable answer.

"**I believe he was aware that she thinks of herself as my fraccion.**"he said after much thought. He could feel Cirucci's eyes bore into him, and seeing as he was facing her with one of his heads, see it as well.

Uncomfortable silence reigned, the only sounds being Aaroniero's and Cirucci's footsteps. Aaroniero had no clue why, but he felt like he had said something wrong. For her part, Cirucci said nothing, until Aaroniero slipped into Loly's room, when she left.

Cirucci had used sonido to get away from Aaroniero. He tended to say things that insulted her, even though he had no possible idea that he was doing so. What did that..._girl_ have that she didn't? Why would Aaroniero let _her_ so close, even carrying her back to her room..._bridal style_?

"Argh! Men!" she almost wailed at the ceiling, the echos slapping off of the high walls and racing down the hall. She had hoped that the small show of anger would satisfy her, but there was no such luck.

"Aaroniero again?" came a familiar voice from behind her. She turned and gazed back at Harribel, who was walking slowly towards her.

"Has it ever been anyone else?" asked Cirucci, hoping that Tia would do more to make her feel better than the pint of chocolate ice cream she had gotten in the world of the living.

"Szayelapporo." said Tia, taking a couple steps towards Cirucci, crossing her arms in front of her sizable chest. Cirucci took a moment to think before answering.

"Szayel and I...I've already told you that was...just a phase, I mean, no it wasn't...more like...an attempt to move on." she explained, and knowing exactly what Tia would say next. That tub of ice cream was sounding like a better and better therapist to Cirucci.

"You mean an attempt to get over Aaroniero." Tia calmly stated, her eyes boring holes straight into Cirucci's thoughts. The privarion really hated it when the woman did that. Almost as bad as the former septima's staring and meditating.

"Yes! Fine, it was! I just wanted a man who actually had feelings for me! Is that so bad?" To Cirucci, her train of thought was correct. But to Tia, that particular train rivaled the titanic for disasters.

"And Szayel wanted a woman with feelings for him. And you didn't." snapped Tia, the stare hardening into something close to contempt. Cirucci couldn't take it.

"No! I...loved Szayelapporo! Loved him like..." she started, but Tia cut her off.

"Loved him like your own brother. Yes, I figured as much. Sadly, the love he wanted was the kind that goes between a man and woman, not brother and sister." she pointed out, and she knew that the words cut. But Cirucci was determined to not let it show.

"That's more cliche than those cheezy human soap operas." said Cirucci, trying desperatly to change the topic.

"You broke his heart." Cirucci gasped.

"I did not! We just had too little in common for a real relationship!" Cirucci tried to defend herself. She had told herself that she had been justified in breaking it off with Szayel. She told herself it was mutual. Cirucci turned and ran. She didn't want to hear the truth.

"Just keep telling yourself that-" said Tia from behind her.

"-while I tell the truth and see which one wins out." she finished as she used sonido to move in front of Cirucci.

"No! Leave me alone!" cried Cirucci, cupping her hands over her ears.

"_**That is quite enough, Tia**_."


	4. Chapter 4

**Aaro: seeing as we have forgotten the disclaimer in past chapters**

_ Niero: we will give it to all of you now. Cirucci, If you will._

Cirucci: Aaroniero Arruruie does not own Bleach, or any of it's characters, exept a few OCs later. They are his.

Di Roy took his time getting back to his room, using the alone time to mull over what had just transpired. He had gone to Szayelapporo in hopes that the damage to his mask could be repaired, hopefully allowing him to finish his arrancar development.

What he had gotten was so much better. Rinker had given up hope of ever being a Vasto Lorde a long time ago, but here he was, shimmering in gold and silver, after one trip to Szayel's lab. Maybe he should go more often, who knew what could happen?

He raised his hands again, just to see the shining gold that covered them. Di Roy could see his new mask reflected in them, and he smiled behind the resplendent death headdress. He couldn't wait to see the first cracks appear in it, to feel that immense rush of power. Feeling that power, that...

Rinker tripped over the bandages hanging off of his arms.

"Damn these things!" he hissed as he picked himself off of the floor, trying once again to tear the offending fabric off of his limbs. Tried and failed. They tore quite easily, but they grew back. Longer than before.

Rinker cursed them. He hoped they would go away or at least shrink when he was an arrancar again. No sooner than he had finished the thought, the fabric receeded. Di Roy tried something else, willing the bandaging into the air. It rose, growing again, until it reached the high ceiling of the hallway. Di Roy wondered...

Rinker concentrated on shortening them again, but stopping the process when there was three yards of bandages left. He willed them to twist together, creating three twined ropes for each arm. He then coiled the ropes around his arms.

"Simple solutions to difficult problems." he muttered to himself aas he continued down the hall, his footsteps ringing off the high ceiling. He had time to pass until he was an arrancar.

He decided to go back to his room for awhile. Hell with all else to do.

Di Roy proceded to do a total about face, taking the shortest route to the hallway where Grimmjow's fraccions had stayed. It was a path he had often avoided, seeing as it led past a large door with the number four emblazed upon it.

Ulquiorra's room. Even though the Cuatro was well and truly dead, Di Roy was unwilling to walk past it. It still gave off the stoic and emotionless aura of the fourth himself. No one had ever grown the balls to actually go inside, with the exeption of Orihime Inoue.

The door loomed off to his right. He was tempted to go inside, but he just walked on. Who knew what Ulquiorra kept in that room.

As he came to the end of the hall, he turned right and headed up a flight of stairs, then took a left into his hallway. He immediatly saw the woman outside his door, her hand raised to knock, but seemingly too timid to do so. He wondered what she wanted.

"Can I help you?" he asked, almost laughing as she started, taking two steps back.

"Oh! Y-yes...I'm looking for Di Roy Rinker. You wouldn't happen to know if he's in there, would you?" she asked timidly, holding her sleeve up to cover her blush. She looked familier...it was the sleeve across the face.

"Well, you might as well come in." he said as he reached for the handle on the door. He opened it and made an after you motion. If the woman's face got any redder, Di Roy thought she might turn into a tomato or something.

"What?" she asked dumbly. She must have been expecting the old Di Roy, he thought. Introductions were most likely in order. Di Roy smiled behind the mask.

"Forgive me. It must have been rude of me to invite you in without proper introduction. My name is Di Roy Rinker, sixteenth arrancar." he said, then waited for the the woman to enter as indicated.

"Oh...I'm Sun-sun..." she said raising a second sleeve to her face. Damn it, Di Roy thought, that was so familier...wait a second.

He let her step into his room, where he invited her to take a seat on the only chair he kept in his room. He himself took a seat on his bed, facing Sun-sun. She seemed unable to stop looking at his mask, specificly the upper left side. He lifted a hand to his head, and he felt a crack in the mask. He smiled, not that she could see it.

"I remember you now...you were the one standing behind the woman I walked into in the hall." he said as soon as Sun-sun was settled in the chair. Her face got redder still.

Sun-sun's face felt like the sun was burning just underneath it. It was strange, seeing as she could never recall ever being this shy. She took a deep breath through both of her sleeves, hoping to calm down. It didn't work.

"You're different...than I remember...Mr. Rinker..." she said slowly, and Di Roy laughed at the formality.

"Ah, there's no need for the fancy speak here, miss. Just call me Di Roy or Rinker. In return I'll refrain from calling you miss again, deal?" he said, still chuckling. He was pretty straight forward, at least with one part. Maybe he didn't want to talk about it? Maybe she should act like Tia hadn't told her a thing about his past.

"But, as to me being different...I was one Grimmjow's fraccions once. But as you know he's dead now so I'm not stuck with his...ah, wait, must be polite...abuse. Anyway, before I was an arrancar, I traveled with five others, all adjuchas. Shawlong, Nakim, Edorad, Ilfort, and last and most certainly least in my opinion, Grimmjow." he explained, spitting the last name out like it was salt water. Tia had been right when she had said that Di Roy had issues with Grimmjow.

Though under the circumstances, Sun-sun couldn't blame him.

"We traveled throughout Hueco Mundo, looking for the strongest of hollows to consume. We were like many others before us. That is until we let Grimmjow join up. The first thing the bastard did after seeing me was take a bite out of my face. But I'm skipping about a bit arn't I? After about three months and three thousand hollows, none of the others had became Vasto Lordes." Sun-sun had started to become wrapped up in the story. She could only wonder what memory was attached to his words.

Sun-sun had an incredable imagination. She would often seem to be lost in thought when people told a story, only to find out she had been listening the whole time, imagining the entire scenario. Sun-sun felt her eyes close.

_ The others were gathered around Grimmjow, the panther-like hollow crouched on top of a dead bird hollow. It appeared to Sun-sun that they were explaining something to him. _

_ Out of curiosity, Sun-sun slithered closer. As the conversation came into focus, it became clear that the speaker, a tall, stick limbed figure with entirely too long fingers had been at this for awhile._

_ "Grimmjow, it has been months since we have eaten our one thousanth hollow. And as you know, that is where we stopped having any signifigant power increase." he said, giving the air that he had repeated this fact many times over._

_ "I do not care. It is not my fault if you are a weakling. And I thought you said you would never give up?" replied Grimmjow carelessly, ripping a chunk out of the dead hollow._

_ "That was before. We now believe that we are not meant to be Vasto Lordes. It is a right that is reserved for the strong. Hollows like you, Grimmjow." he said, pointing one of those freakish fingers at the panther._

_ "What are you getting at, Shawlong?" asked Grimmjow. This was an appearantly new side of the arguement._

_ "As you know, if we do not eat enough hollow, we will revert into mindless gillians. This can be prevented if you, were to say, take a bite out of us." said Shawlong. Grimmjow's eyes lit up._

_ "Di Roy never had a chance at Vasto Lorde, not since you bit him. We think that a bite will also prevent turning back into a gillian." Shawlong explained further. Grimmjow began to laugh, but he cut himself off suddenly._

_ "Too late for that. I already did." all eyes turned to a very pleased Grimmjow._

_ "I hope you didn't think I'd actually give you fools a chance at Vasto Lorde did you?"_

_ A blue cero blasted the spot Grimmjow used to be. Di Roy loomed over the group, ready to blast Grimmjow again, but he was too slow. Even the immense slug-like form of Di Roy was easily hurled aside by a weak cero from the panther._

_ "No!" I shreiked as Grimmjow smiled._

Sun-Sun thrashed about in an iron grip as her imaginary Di Roy lay unmoving.

"Sun-sun! What the hell is going on?" yelled the real Di Roy as he restrained the woman. Damn it, she was strong, he admited to himself.

"What? Oh shit...I'm sorry, this is so embarassing..." she said, hiding her entire face behind her sleeve.

"What was that?" he asked her as he returned to his seat.

Sun-sun spent the better part of an hour trying to relate what had happened to Di Roy, which was made all the harder by the fact he could barely hear her behind that sleeve.

Loly woke up in her room, and screamed. Where was Aizen? Could she get away? She needed to get to somebody, Aaroniero, or maybe Tia. Someone who could protect her.

She mentally slapped herself. What was the use? No one could protect her from that beast. Even if she could get there, she would be handed back to Aizen by Gin or Kaname.

Tears squeezed out of Loly's eyes as she curled up in a ball on her bed. She didn't want to move, she hurt all over. Loly couldn't comprehend how Aizen could abuse her like he did. All he had to do at first was ask.

Loly didn't want to think about it either, the memories hurt just as bad, if not worse, than her body. It was much better to think about Aaroniero. He was the only one who knew about what Aizen was doing to her. Even the thought of his gentle manner towards her was enough to make her feel better.

From the first incedent to the latest, Aaroniero was the only one to care about her feelings. Only he saw the tears that their way from her only visible eye as she tried to make her way back to her room to recover.

No, that wasn't true. There was also Findor, but she hadn't told him why she cried. Loly knew he would do something that would get him killed. So Loly had kept him in the dark.

Loly struggled to sit up. Her stomach burned with pain, but she couldn't lay there wallowing in her self-pity. She needed to find Aaroniero and tell him about this latest attack.

She only hoped Findor would not find her. She didn't think that she could keep her shameful secret from him much longer. Loly got herself to her feet. Her legs burned from the many cuts and bruises running up them, but she didn't want to wait for the pain to go away.

Loly struggled to the door, almost falling twice. She knew she was in no condition to walk, but she had to. The talks with Aaroniero had been the only thing keeping her from killing herself for weeks.

She opened the door, and stumbled down the hall, one hand on the wall for balance.

"Loly! Holy shit what the hell happened!" came Findor's voice from behind her. She knew the old excuse wouldn't cut it this time, but she tried it anyway.

"Nothing, I was just...practicing with..." Talking hurt quite a bit, and it made Findor an opening to cut in.

"Practicing with who? Grimmjow and Nnoitra in their release forms?" he asked as ran up beside her, taking her arm and trying to help her walk. She leaned into him gratefully.

"Findor, I'm sorry, but I don't...no I can't tell you, not yet..." she felt dizzy as she said it. She had to stop walking to prevent passing out.

Findor couldn't believe how bad Loly looked. She had cuts and bruises everywhere, and looked like she was about to pass out.

"Why the hell didn't you go see the nurses!" he yelled as he scooped her up and carried her in the opposite direction she had been going. She didn't struggle, she knew it wouldn't work. If he had to, Findor would use his release to get her to those damn nurses.

"Findor...I'm sorry." she whispered. Findor tried to pick up his pace, but it hurt her to go faster than a walk. He didn't even consider sonido.

"Shh. Don't talk. You'll be with the nurses soon." he assured her as he decended a flight of stairs.

The truth was that it would feel like hours at this rate, the nurses were stationed at the other side of Los Noches. He breifly considered leaving her in order to use sonido to get one of the nurses, but the thought of such was swiftly obliterated. He would not leave her in such a state.

He pressed on. It hurt him to see Loly in such a situation. He would gladly have taken her place on the recieving end of such a beating. He began to wonder where exactly she had accumulated her injuries. He resolved to press her for answers.

And then he would take revenge for her. Fear rose in a pit on his stomach as the possibilities entered his mind. What if the offender was an espada? There was no way he could beat one of them.

But again he resolved to try. Barragan had always told him that if one was not willing to die for what he believed in, not only were they a coward, they would be alone all of their life.

And that was what Findor wanted least. He rather wanted a woman in his life. It was his thought that a woman would make him a little more mellow. And he could certainly do with that, many other arrancar said he was far to serious, far too often.

Findor was extremely relieved to finally come upon the nurses' station. He barged in, yelling for a nurse.

He got three, who swiftly took Loly from him and put her in a bed. He was then shooed out into the hallway as they began to treat her.

Rudobon wandered outside of Las Noches, along with twenty of his Calaveras. He had no idea what he would do now that Aizen was dead. Of course he was not sad that the bastard was dead, but the man had given Rudobon a reason to live.

It was not long before he felt the other following him with his pequisa. The power was unfamillier, so it must be one of those shinigami. Well no soul reaper would catch Rudobon Chelute by suprise!

The calaveras tried to pile on the follower as Rudobon himself drew Arbol. He flipped around and blocked the swing at his masked head. As Rudobon looked at his attacker, he knew it was no soul reaper. An arrancar, one he had never before layed eyes on. A rebel, then.

The Calaveras again tried to pile on, but the arrancar sonidoed away. Not a chance, thought Rubodon. He launched himself into the air, dodging the cero that landed where he had been before, killing most of his calaveras.

"Impressive, for one of Aizen's lackeys." said a voice behind him.

"Impressive, for a rebel." countered Rudobon, swinging Arbol behind him. The arrancar dodged with seeming ease using sonido.

"A worthy opponent. I shall grant you the honor of my name. I am Rudobon Chulate, leader of the Exequias. And yours?" he asked, feeling his blood boil from the prospect of a fight.

"Heh. None of your business. But I'll tell you what, if you manage to beat me I'll tell you." said the arrancar in a voice one would more expect to find coming from a spurned lover. Rudobon thought the voice was strange, coming from a man, though he said nothing.

Instead he used Sonido to close with the unknown arrancar, only to recieve a sharp cut to the arm. The arrancar was fast, and he had been able to cut through Rudobon's Hierro like nothing.

"Looks like you're in trouble, lackey." came that voice again, behind him. Pain lanced through him as the arrancar's blade peirced his shoulder. One of his lungs stopped working and his shoulder blade fractured.

Rudobon pulled himself off of the blade and turned. This time he examined his opponent seriously. Sharp green eyes stared out from under a frame of black hair, and two spikes that made up his mask remnants protruding from the corners of his eyes. His mouth was sewn shut. How the man was speaking was a mystery, until he spoke again.

"You're doomed." he said, but the sound didn't come from his mouth. As Rudobon watched the man's hand deformed into a mass of mouths, all but the one that was speaking opening and closing in a random manner.

"You're disgusting...Grow...Arbol..." his release began. All of the man's mouths frowned in unison. Rudobon felt his wounds heal, and he could breath normally again. Branches grew from his back, and a lightning bolt "stick" replaced arbol in his hand.

"In vain, lackey-" said the man as he sonidoed right in front of the transformed Rudobon, who raised his hand to cero the freak. But the hand didn't raise in time as the man's mouths vomited acid all over Rudobon.

"-because jealousy rots. Be it from the inside. Or the outside." said the freak as Rudobon's body began to dissolve. Painfully. He screamed as his intestines began to dump his own digestive juices into his abdominal cavity. Rudobon fell out of the sky as the trauma made him lose control over his rietsu. Pieces of his dissolving flesh harolded him just bfore he hit the sand, vomiting blood. The salt from the sand got into his blood stream as his heart and lungs were destroyed.

"Just so you know before you die. I will give you the honor of my name. I am Ulric Gangre, Octava espada."

As Rudobon lay dying, he realized how he had lost so easily...but...there was...already an...octava...

"Tia...forgive...me..." were his last words before dying.

Aaroniero went back to his room after putting Loly back in her room. He had pretended to not notice her injuries, and did his best to ignore them in front of Cirucci and Nnoitra. He knew what Aizen had been doing to the poor woman, but he couldn't stop it. Not alone.

She had been one of the driving forces behind his participation in the rebellion against Aizen, the other being the young shinigami named Rukia. He had fond memories of her from Kaien Shiba, and he knew he would have explaining to do when he next came around her, or when she attended the party Orihime Inoue was going to throw for her baby.

Aaroniero slipped his mask on. He had forgotten to do so, and now all four of his eyes hurt from the vile sun. He also picked up the letter on his bed. He suspected the reason that he had been invited was that he had once been given the task of watching the girl when Ulquiorra had been in a meeting with Aizen.

During that time, Aaroniero clearly remembered her trying to get him to remove his mask. Eventually he did, but not before he transformed into Kaien. He had been quite proud of himself for that, until she turned on the light for a better look.

The transformation back left him dazed, it always did that when it was forced. At least she hadn't screamed.

That was when Grimmjow walked in, and told Aaroniero to leave. But he hadn't, making Grimmjow very angry.

_"Get the fuck out ya damn night light!" said Grimmjow, pushing the noveno towards the door. Aaroniero stepped to his original spot._

_ "_Not until Ulquiorra returns.** Until that happens I stay.**_" said Aaroniero. Grimmjow grabbed Orihime by the arm and drew her close, and licked her face, looking at Aaroniero the whole time. Then he froze. He could still see his tongue and Orihime's scared face._

_ "You. Fucking. Arn't." he said, withdrawing his tongue and relinquishing his grip on Orihime._

_ "Yes, yes he is." said Ulquiorra from behind him._

_ As Aaroniero and Orihime left the room while Ulquiorra reduced Grimmjow to something less than a puddle, Aaroniero chuckled._

_ "What did you do?" she asked, eyes wide._

_ "_**I can broadcast what I see to all arrancars within Las Noches. I call this my Broadcasted sight.**_" he responded, slipping his mask back on._

Aaroniero had always enjoyed broadcasting things that got people in trouble. Though he never really got a chance to indulge himself, so when Ulquiorra had told him about Grimmjow's plan, he had eagerly joined in.

He tossed the letter back on the bed. He might go to the party, just for Orihime, but he, as a rule, _did not_ dance. Neither he, nor Kaien, nor any other hollow he had eaten knew how.

He was about to unbuckle brujeria's sheath, when he felt Cirucci and Tia Harribel's riatsu fall and spike respectively, and they were right next to each other. Without hesitation, he used sonido to be at their location instantly.

"You broke his heart." said Tia, looking at Cirucci, something like disdain on her face.

"I did not! We just had too little in common for a real relationship!" Cirucci screamed, turning and running away from Tia.

"Just keep telling yourself that-" she said, before sonidoing in front of Cirucci.

"While I tell the truth and see which one wins out." she finished, looking down on the wimpering Cirucci.

"No! Leave me alone!" Cirucci screamed, cupping her ears in her hands. Aaroniero gritted all sixty four of his teeth as he sonidoed behind Harribel.

"_**That is quite enough, Tia.**_" he said. He released a stream of air bubbles within his tank in his rage. She turned to face him, suprise evident on her face.

"Aaroniero. Not really a suprise, I suppose." she said, crossing her arms.

"_**Leave Cirucci alone.**_" was all Aaroniero had to say. She chuckled, looking like she held some great secret. Whatever it was, it seemed that Cirucci was the one who was the center of it.

"Why should I? She led poor Szayelapporo on. Someone has to stand up for him, even if he loves her too much to do it himself. You'd do good to stop being around her, she'll do the same thing to you, you know." she growled, pointing at Cirucci over her shoulder. Aaroniero began to think something was going on. Something centered on him.

"Tia, stop! I'm sorry!" wailed Cirucci. She was crying now. How much of the conversation did I miss, Aaroniero asked himself.

"Damn right you are! But that still won't stop me from saying what you are too scared to say yourself!" she yelled back at Cirucci. She stepped closer to Aaroniero and leaned in closer.

"Oh this revenge is sweet. She wants you to be your whore, Aaroniero. But I interrpret that as wanting to lead you on, then leave you a broken man. She did it once, to my best friend. I'm just giving you a warning. Her 'Love' is a sick parody."

Aaroniero watched as Cirucci got up and ran away from them. She was now in hysterics. He didn't see why she would if it wasn't true.

"_**I will deal with you later.**_" he said as he used sonido to catch up with Cirucci.

They were gone. Harribel had done her task, not that she was proud of herself. In truth she felt sick. If there had not been so much at stake, she would have laughed at the fool who had given this task to her.

"Good girl, you put on a good show." came that hideous voice, from behind her. A pair of hands settled on her shoulders. Tears, held back since the task started, flowed freely.

"And you managed to not say anything about this to her, or him. You've earned your reward." he said, his face right next to her ear. His breath was hot and vile.

"Rudobon. Just leave him alone. He didn't do anything." she said, the tears begining to choke her, and he licked her face.

"Oh, about that. It seems that Ulric already killed him. Before I talked to you." he said. Tears stopped flowing. Tia's legs buckled and she fell. Tears could no longer convey her feelings.

"No! You're lying!"

"You wish. And to prevent you from blabbing about me, the master has this message. 'If you tell anyone about us, I will bring him back. Then kill him. Again and again.'" He said, standing over her.

"You can't have! No...I...I hate you all!" she screamed ineffectivly, as he walked away.

"Good. I tend to have that effect on people, you know. And just so you know who to hate, I am Lucion Grey, Quinta espada. Hate is a virtue, you know." he said as he sonidoed away.

Harribel screamed until she was found by Starrk, two hours later. She literally had to put a hand over her mouth in order to stop herself from telling him all about it.

Cirucci ran. She had to lose Aaroniero. She simply couldn't face him yet. but she knew it was in vain, Aaroniero could catch her easily.

And he did, a second later. A hand closed around her wrist.

"**Cirucci, wait**!" said Aaroniero.

"Let go! I can't do this yet!" she screamed. She tried to pull away, but he held her fast.

"_Is it true_? he asked. He let her go, but she didn't run again. Now that she had a golden chance, she couldn't let it go, no matter how nervous she was. It was too good, and it had to be done. She turned to him.

"Yes." she waited for him to laugh. To yell at her. To do something.

It was a rather long wait. He said nothing for the longest time, before he suprised her.

"_**No one's ever...loved me...before**_." he whispered. Cirucci couldn't believe it. Did he like her back?

"**But I am willing to try to love**." he said, stepping to her and wrapping her in a warm embrace that she willingly returned. She felt Glotoneria writhing under his sleeve. It almost felt like a massage.

"Don't worry...I'll teach you all about it." she said, lifting off the mask and kissing Aaroniero's tank. The head with the deep voice looked at her. The tank prevented him from kissing back, and he couldn't transform since he was in light.

"We'll get over the whole tank thing, Aaroniero. I'll figure something out." She held the tank in her hands as she leaned on his muscular chest. An afterlife of fighting without any sort of love is what made him like that, and he was fond of saying that his heart was made of solid glass.

What that meant to her and what that meant to her were two different things. To him, it meant his heart was harder than hell. To her it meant if you put a little heat on it, it could be shaped into something beautiful.

What the hell were they doing? The woman had played her part as good as the master would have in her place, yet the expected result was absent! The woman was supposed to have been too angry and scared to talk to Aaroniero, and he was supposed to get angry with her for that.

They were supposed to hate each other! Not love each other!

Grey was sure his time was over in Hueco Mundo. The master would be very angry with him for his failure.

"_**Calm yourself, Grey. You have done well. Different result, but I have planned for this as well. Worry not. You and Ulric will be greatly rewarded.**_"

"Yes, master! Thank you master! Even in my failure, I somehow serve!" he groveled. even though he had served well, he knew that the master was ready to kill him at a moment's notice.

"_**That is correct. You are the servant. Never forget your place. For your part in my plan is easily replaced.**_" Grey felt the master's presance receed. He felt a massive headache coming on.

"Ulric. We're leaving." he told the octava. He knew he and Ulric had much more work to do.

"Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?" asked a voice behind them. Grey turned to the new presence.

The newcomer waas a little girl. Grey suspeted that they now occupied her room, along with the giant stuffed toys that littered the floor. He smiled, and she tried to run. Grey leapt for her, zanpakuto drawn.

"Cero." was all they heard before they were blasted out of Las Noches, through two walls and hitting the sands outside.

Starrk leaned out of the hole he had made in Lilinette's wall. The two arrancars that had invaded her room. They were a pair of idiots, no one messed with Lilinette and interrupted his sleep!

He used sonido to appear in front of them. They were just recovering from the blast, which Starrk had been forced to power down in order to avoid blowing all of the girl's stuff and half of Las Noches to hell.

"Ulric, this one has to die too. Take care of it." said one, as the other began growing extra limbs and mouths.

"Die, Lackey!" the..._thing_ screamed as it charged, vomiting out of at least nine mouths. Starrk again used sonido, and drew Los Lobos, severing three of the deformed limbs. It wailed and fell over, the stumps spurting blood every which way.

Grey was worried. This one was fast. Really fast. There was no way this was just a numero. He had snared one of the four top espada, he was sure. He and Ulric needed to run. Now.

"Get up, fool! We're leaving!" he yelled as Ulric grew more limbs and used sonido to escape. Grey followed his example.

"Damn that made me tired." Starrk mumbled to himself, while floating back up to the hole in the wall. Time to crash.

Auther's note: I. Made. This. Chapter. On. A. Two. Day. Writing. Binge. Holy Fuck this one was looooonnnng. A thirty page beast.

To my reveiwers.

Darkmachines: Hope this one answers a few of your questions. Rudobon was killed as a way to Control Harribel. Findor helped Loly to the nurses, and Aaroniero and Cirucci are now a couple! Happy times!

Sol21: Hmmm...not quite sure u deserve this Sol. I mean ur chaos and im eldar this wont end well. Anyway I hope there was enough epic win and gar for you.


	5. Chapter 5

** Aaro: This time we have special guests to do our disclaimer.**

_ Niero: Indeed. We brought in Ulric and Grey after they got their asses handed to them by Starrk. Now do the disclaimer before I write you out of the story._

Ulric and Grey: *Gulps* Aaroniero Arruruie does not own Bleach or any assoiciated character exept those of his own creation, such as us.

Days had passed since Loly had been put in the hospital. That was all she knew. She had been laying in this bed for far too long. Soon Aizen would come looking for her. She needed to move.

Loly got up. There was little pain, unlike the time she had tried to find Aaroniero. She supposed that meant she could go, so she just left the nurse's station. There were no nurses to stop her. They must have been treating Grimmjow or Nnoitra for their idiotic ability to nearly kill themselves turning everyday tasks into "extreme" cleaning involving cero, or "extreme" laundry involving Gillian class hollows.

The antics of Grimmjow and Nnoitra aside, Loly was still traumatized. The continued abuse Aizen threw her way had affected her mind, she supposed. She wondered if he had turned his anger on any other arrancar in her absence. She thought he would. It would be another reason that the nurses were not around.

Loly cursed herself. She shouldn't be thinking about anyone but her right now. no one else in Las noches had it as bad as her, Aizen had said. She had come to believe it. No one else was beaten on a daily basis that didn't like to get their ass kicked.

She noticed that the usual clamor was not coming from the training chamber as she passed it. Maybe Grimmjow and Nnoitra hads trashed themselves after all. It wouldn't be the first time they had done so.

Since when had she been so easily distracted? This was about her, not those two! She had to get away from Las Noches. If there was something going on, it was a perfect opprotunity to escape to the world of the living. She could hide there for a long time.

It was perfect! All she had to do was get her sword from her room, then she would disappear!

Loly sprinted through the halls. Her steps echoed loudly, even though no others were around to hear them. Up a flight of stairs, cross the throne room, past the palace of Aaroniero.

Aaroniero. Besides Findor, he would be the only one to worry about her if she just disappeared. She thought to tell him where she was going. Maybe he would go with her. It would get quite lonely in the living world with just stupid humans and Shinigami trying to kill her. It was not like he had anything keeping him here.

She ran into the palace. As expected, it was dark, and it took her eyes awhile to adjust. The palace was a big place. She had run into here blindly after the first attack Aizen visited on her, thinking it a derelict section because of the darkness. Loly had curled up in what she had thought the farthest corner from where anyone would ever look for her, and cried for an hour.

But it was not so secluded. Soon she had heard the sound of life, a woman's voice. Followed by a man's. Loly had gotten up to see who it was, and was suprised to see Cirucci Thunderwitch, one of the privarions, dragging the noveno espada, Aaroniero Arrururie by his foot out into the sun.

Loly had figured that this was where people went to have freaky sex or something. However, around half an hour later, the noveno had returned alone. His deep voice grumbling, and the child voice silent.

She had been happy to let him pass, as long as he left her alone. She had no idea he would be so willing to listen to her and her woes.

As Loly made her way towards the back of the palace, and towards the place that Aaroniero slept, she came upon that familiar sight. Cirucci was dragging Aaroniero by the foot once again.

"I don't care if the sun burns your eyes! I'm your girlfriend and I say you go to breakfast today!" yelled Cirucci over her shoulder at the noveno. Aaroniero for his part said nothing, though Loly couldn't see his expressions under his mask to see if he was smiling or angry.

Then it hit her like a shit ton of Yammy. Did she just say _girlfriend_? Loly immediatly called bullshit on that. Aaroniero was hers, damn it! He obviously loved her, why else would he sit for hours and listen to her spill her guts about all the shit Aizen did to her?

"Hey, Cirucci." she said acidly. The other purple haired woman looked at her oddly. What was _she_ doing here? Her eyes said. Maybe she just saw a challage where there was one. That at least put her ahead of most other women here.

"I'm wondering, what exactly are you doing with my man?" said Loly, staring Cirucci down.

"_Your_ man? I don't know where you've been, Loly, but he's been mine for three days. Back off." replied Cirucci, dropping Aaroniero's leg and staring back at Loly.

Who the fuck did this bitch think she was, thought Cirucci. She had total dibs on Aaroniero. If Loly had wanted him, she should have made a move sooner.

"No, I don't believe I'll back off. I want him." seethed Loly as her visible eye widened. Cirucci wanted to wipe the floor with Loly so bad, just show her who was boss. It was a good thing that they had both left their zanpakuto in their rooms, or Aaroniero's palace might not survive.

"Too bad! He's already mine! Get your own man, or better yet, go find Yammy. I hear he gives free rides!" she sneered back. Loly went from annoyed to unimaginably pissed in a second.

Both women chose that moment to leap at each other, leaving Aaroniero wondering what the hell was going on and when he had gotten so popular. They immediatly, without their zanpakutos, reverted from slicing each other to ribbons to pull each other's hair out at the roots in typical catfight fashion.

"Ah! Get off you bitch! He's mine!" yelled Loly, rolling on top of Cirucci and trying to stand, but Cirucci pulled her hair harder and kicked her in the stomach, and she fell again, letting Cirucci jump on her.

"No, he's mine! Get over yourself!" she screamed, just before Loly's fist made friends with her chin, making her teeth click together and making her fall backwards.

Loly got up and started kicking Cirucci in the side, making her yelp before planting her fist in Loly's gut. Loly stumbled backwards, and Cirucci tried to jump on her again.

But she was caught by around ten tenticles as Aaroniero decided to end the fight.

Aaroniero had seen enough, and he decided to end it in one move, so when Cirucci leapt, he used Glotonria to catch her, and used his other hand to lift Loly by the collar. They were less than enthusiastic about the intervention.

"Let me go, I've still got ass to kick!" yelled Cirucci, struggling against Glotonria and spitting at Loly. Aaroniero shook her a bit, dazing her.

"_Now if you two are read to speak like civilized beings_, **I will let you down**." he told them. He observed the hostility still coming from both of them. He shook them both this time, then dropped them both. They landed with thuds, and they still looked like they were going to kill each other, but they knew they wouldn't get the chance with Aaroniero there looking over their shoulders.

"**Good. Now, Cirucci, that was uncalled for**. _You are acting like a child_. **Loly, I will still have to side with Cirucci**. _We have been seeing each other for three days, and i see _**any claim by you to being my attachment as void. It would also be slightly improper, seeing as I have been helping you with you problem. It would be like a therapist and patient seeing each other." **he explained in tandem.

Cirucci stuck her tongue out at Loly. Loly just glowered. Aaroniero helped them both to their feet, retracting his tenticles at the same time.

As soon as Aaroniero let go of her, Loly dashed out of sight in the gloom. He couldn't be sure, but he thought she could be crying.

Aaroniero grabbed Cirucci by the hand

"_That breakfast sounds good right about now_." he said as he lead he towards the sun. He could sense the smile she flashed him.

"Good to see you came around." she said, cuddling in close to him as they walked.

Di Roy looked at the mirror. The arrancar development had gone remarkably well. His mask had broken shortly after he was laughing at Sun-sun for trying to imagine his memories. He could have sworn she was flouresent at that time.

After his mask had broken, the only part of it that remained was a small line that ran from the bridge of his nose to his hairline. Di Roy had broken most of it off himself, but those annoying bandages had stayed. He could still control them, however, and he kept them short. He was a bit disapointed that his skin had returned to normal, instead of being bright gold.

He had returned to carrying his sword in his hands, he had missed the feeling for the two hours he had been without the newly renamed Rey De Tumbas. It looked exactly the same as his old zanpakuto, but he could feel that the name and release command had changed.

Unfortunatly, a visit to Szayelapporo revealed that he was expressly forbidden to use his release until he had undergone the espada evaluation, two days from now. Di Roy bemoaned his lot, now he had to kill two more days until he got to do something.

He figured he wanted to visit Sun-sun. He hadn't seen her since the time he told her his life story. Rinker thought that he may have dominated the converstion last time, and he was quite curious about her now.

He tore himself away from the mirror, and opened his door and stepped into the hall. There was only one thing that prevented him from going straight to Sun-sun. And that was that Sun-sun had never told him where her room was, so he would just have to wander Las Noches until he found one of Harribel's fraccions or Harribel herself.

But that way wasn't as fun. It took away the thrill of the hunt. Di Roy smiled to himself as he set out. Yes, this was some pretty good entertainment.

It wasn't much, thought Sayalmar, this Las Noches. It was in ruins, with half of the dome missing. How the Espada lived in such a place was a mystery. But he could feel them there, though there were only seven of them, as opposed to the ten he had heard of.

Who cared, as long as Nnoitra was there as he said he would be. The bastard still owed Sayalmar a rematch.

It had been awhile since he had seen Nnoitra, the last he had heard, he was the octava espada in the arrancar army of some guy named Aizen. The jackass had better have improved since then, because in Sayalmar's opinion, being named one of the stongest arrancars in existance made a man soft.

He used sonido to reach a small dune closer to the dome. Damn, the closer you got the bigger the fucker got! He was beginning to see how they lived there. There was even sunlight in there, lucky bastards.

Sayalmar's eyes widened, and he barely avoided the spear that would have went straight through his heart had he not used sonido to escape.

"That, good sir, was uncalled for." he told the weilder, who wore a white jacket and black sash with white pants. it was something like he had last seen Nnoitra in, exept without that ridiculus spoon hood.

"Fuck off and die." the man told him. Well, how rude could you get? Sayalmar decided to teach the guy some manners. He drew Entusiasta, ready for the next attack.

It didn't take long for the other arrancar to launch it, either. He sonidoed into range and sank the spear into the meat of Sayalmar's left shoulder. Pain flared. It was like getting stabbed three times, not one. He tore the blade out. His hierro had been nothing! what was this guy?

Sayalmar slashed him across the face. Sparks flew as the arrancar's iron skin repelled the attack. His left arm wasn't responding well. Seeing as that was his sword arm, he only had one choice. He couldn't pierce the arrancar's heirro like this.

He sonidoed away. Maybe he would get a rematch later, when he was healed and when he was done with Nnoitra.

Nelliel walked towards Nnoitra's room. He was expecting her today, he wanted to fight again. Ever since discovering that they had become equals, he couldn't stop fighting her. It was no longer a pathetic attempt to kill her. She suspected it was now an attempt to spend time with her, but he was too bloody masculine to admit it.

She smiled to herself. That was alright, he tried. Nelliel had never seen the side of him that wasn't a bloodthirsty murderer before, and she had to admit that it wasn't that bad. The sight of him with flowers for her wasn't something she was looking forward to, though.

She might laugh at him to hard to take them.

Nel had become fairly happy in Las Noches. After Nnoitra stopped challanging her every two seconds and she was no longer a dim-witted, if not cute, child, she got to be alone for once, although she still had to send Peshe and Dondochakka away once in awhile for "personal time". Although when they thought she was alone, she would usually sneak Nnoitra in for sex.

Nel giggled. She was like a teenager hiding a relationship from her parents. In a sense she had to, seeing as her two fraccions were still wary of Nnoitra and would flip out if they walked in on them going at it.

A hand brushed her hair. Nel yelped and turned. It was just Nnoitra, standing over her with that grin on his face and santa teresa in hand. She couldn't help but smile at him.

"Ya early, girlie." he said, the grin growing wider. Nel had no idea how he had such a wide grin, probobly just to accomodate that long tongue that did quite wonderful things in...wait let's not get into that now.

"But I'm afraid we're going to have to cut this short. Starrk says he got beat on by a pair o' arrancar. Says they was after Lilinette." Nel's rage flared. Not just at her ruined date, but the cowards that attacked that cute little girl.

"Harribel's chose a fine time to go on her period, cuz we could use her at this point. Rudobon's also gone, got his ass fried, appearantly." Nel was shocked. Nnoitra may not have known this, but Rudobon and Harribel had been seeing each other. She herself only knew because Harribel had told her after she had seen the two together. They had still been uncomfortable with the term relationship, even going as far to lie to Haribel's fraccions about who she was bringing to Orihime's party.

"I've got to see her." she thought out loud. Nnoitra looked at her funny. Nel decided to fill him in.

"Don't tell anyone, but Harribel's not on her period. She was seeing Rudobon until he died." Nnoitra looked at her funny again. She turned and left for Harribel's room. She had girl things to do.

Nnoitra stared at her as she went down the hall. The fuck had just happened?

Di Roy had spent well over an hour wandering the halls. And needless to say he had found no sign of Sun-sun, until he remembered that Harribel was on the other side of the throne room. He did an about face, said screw it, and sonidoed to save time.

He found himself just in front of the door marked three. Off to the side was a door that was open. He looked in, and there was Sun-sun. He knocked once. She sat bolt upright n her bed, turning to face him.

She looked tired. There were dark circles under her eyes, and they were red. And as soon as she saw Di Roy, so was her face.

"Hey. Why you look so tired? What you been doing for three days?" he asked her. Rinker felt like he was a welcome sight, because she smiled.

"Come in, close the door. We finally got her to sleep." she told him. He did as told and took a seat on the floor.

"Got who to sleep?" he asked, curious. This might explain why she hadn't dropped by his room.

"Tia. she's in hystarics over Rudobon, who I recently learned was in a relationship with her. And now he's dead." she told him, yawning.

"How long ago was this?" Asked Di Roy, his eyes norrowing in concern. He had never seen another person look so worn out.

"Three days." she said, falling back on the bed. Di Roy thought she looked ready to pass out.

"Damn, girl. And let me guess you've been up since." as she nodded the affirmitive, he sighed. He had heard of women running themselves into the ground for one another, though he had never seen such a graphic example. No arrancar needs sleep, but there are special circumstances, a crapload of work or staying up for three days usually did the trick to make anyone pass out.

Sun-sun couldn't keep her eyes open much longer. Di Roy was an unexpected guest, though not unwelcome. She had been tending to Tia for three days, and it had been worse than the time Apacci got dumped by Edorad. She literally would not stop crying.

Di Roy was looking at her. She wasn't sure if she hadn't fallen asleep for a few seconds or not. Sun-sun sat back up. She could get through one visit before totally crashing like a train wreck, but she found Di Roy pushing her back down into her bed and throwing a cover over her.

"You need sleep." was all he said. He lifted her head and arranged her pillow under it.

She was even to tired to blush. She yawned before turning on her side. Sun-sun felt Di Roy's hand on her face, and a smile turned the corners of her mouth upward just before sleep hit her.

Findor rushed all around Las Noches, looking for Loly. She should not have left the hospital yet, and she curse Nnoitra and Yammy's goodbye to Grimmjow extreme cleaning incedent today.

He couldn't help but flash back to what the nurse had told him after they had finished treating Loly.

_Findor was growing impatient, it had been over three hours since he had brought Loly here. Maybe he should have just gone straight for Szayelapporo._

_ No sooner than he had the thought, one of the nurses came out. He immediatly accosted her._

_ "How is she?" he asked the appearantly startled nurse. She gasped and took a step back at the sight of him. He must have looked more pissed than he was. He took a moment to calm down as the nurse collected herself._

_ "Miss Loly is now stable. She was lucky you brought her in, she would have died soon if you hadn't." said the nurse. Findor lost all of his composure at that._

_ "What the hell happened to her?" he almost yelled in her face. She cringed before answering._

_ "It seems that miss Loly has been the subject of repeated abuse. The internal damage was quite extensive, and I suspect she may not be the same again."_

_ "What?" he asked, how could a little internal damage cause her to not be the same? He had internal bleeds quite often, and he just shook them off and continued the fight._

_ "Miss Loly...I'm not sure how to tell you this...but to put it simply, miss Loly has been raped repeatedly for a long period of time." as the words left her mouth, Findor felt his rage boil over. But he couldn't let it get in his way. Not just yet. He still had to talk to Loly. But the nurse told him to wait for three days before seeing her._

And he had done just that, only to find her gone. Now he was tracking her with his pequisa, and he was getting closer. She was in her room, that much was certain. He skidded to a halt by her door.

It was closed and locked, and he could hear her crying softly behind it. He pounded on the door, calling her name. The crying stopped, and something slumped against the door.

"Go away, Findor. I don't want to talk. I'm not ready to tell you about it." she said through the door.

"You don't have to Loly, I already know. The nurses told me." there was a rustle in the room. The door unlocked and he was pulled inside.

Auther's note: Not as long as the last one. Thank fucking god. I did this one in one day, though this one is more of a tie in is what I'm feeling. The mysterious guys calling themselves espada are begining to become known throughout Las Noches, and many romance plots are falling together nicely. Sadly this is a bit of a fill chapter, and an OC gets a two page intro, so not much happens besides a girl fight.


	6. Chapter 6

**Aaro: I own nothing of Bleach.**

_ Niero: Damn straight._

A fire burned brightly in Hueco Mundo. It reflected off of the sands, making the desert sparkle. Sitting nowhere near the flames were three figures, each with anger evident on his face. The one farthest away from the fire, the one bearing a cruelly barbed spear, watched the desert, looking for intruders. He wore glasses and his mask had never broken enough to reveal his face. Hate filled black eyes stared from the eye holes. His outfit consisted of an arrancar uniform, but it was no longer white. It had been stained red from countless hours of torture. The number seven was tatooed on his bare forearm.

The second constantly spoke to himself. He sat in the sand closest to the fire. Mouths constantly formed and unformed all over his body, whispering in jealous voices to each other. He had recently shaved himself bald, and his mouth was sewn shut, the thread and spikes coming out of the corners of his eyes made up his mask. It was said he knew every time that someone had been spurned in the favor of another, and repeated the conversations to himself endlessly. The number eight was tattooed where his jugular would be. He wore white pants with no jacket, so as not to hamper his rapid mutations. His sword rested across his knees.

The third was as far away from the others as he could get without leaving the "camp". He bore the look of a insane murderer, and he twitched in a nervous fashion whenever he was forced to be doing nothing. He was very angry, with his zanpakuto out and slicing the sand in front of him. The clothes he wore were little more than rags, he never cared to get a replacement set, or mend the one he had. He had black hair, cut close to his scalp. At this point a fight was all he wanted. The number five was tatooed on every finger.

All three of them were annoyed. Command would soon shift to someone more unstable than the Quinta, and Grey knew that this man held no regard for anyone under his command. It would be a long wait for someone better to take command.

"Vladimir. That arrancar yesterday. How strong was he?" He asked the septima. The man didn't turn as he answered. He just stared on. It must suck to not have eyelids.

"Despite the fact that he ran, and his heirro was sub-standard, I suspect that he was every bit as powerful as myself." he grumbled. Vladimir spoke with a thick russian accent, and it sometimes made him hard to understand. Grey didn't like it. It made him angry.

"Well who isn't as strong as you. You should have killed him in one shot." he said acidly.

"Maybe you shouldn't have got your ass kicked by that espada." Vladimir shot back.

"Both of you cool it, yeah. We ain't here to fight each other." said a new voice. Grey stood and spun around as the newcomer entered the camp. Newcomers, he corrected himself as he smiled falsely.

"Didn't know the master let you out yet, Tybalt. Thought you were still acting like a housecat." Grey well and truly hated Tybalt. He was too much of a baby. He waited for everyone else to do his work for him.

"Well every kitty's got a wild side, yeah." he said, yawning and stretching, leaning his cane against his shoulder.

"Silence all of you. We have work to do." said the other. Not even Grey could bring himself to hate this man. He was too scared of him to do anything remotely like disrespect him.

"Jericho. I thought you were still-"

"Shut the fuck up Grey. You've made a royal fuckup of this. I tagged on with Tybalt to fix it. The master was willing to put the Sexta over you, but I'm here to straighten you out." he said. Grey's thoughts from earier returned. He would gladly take Tybalt over Jericho. At least Tybalt didn't do suicide missions.

"Now, the master wants Las Noches cleared. We were to begin picking off the weaker arrancar dwelling there. But I believe that we can take them all in one attack. We are going gain much favor. The master has even agreed to sending us two more friends." he told the others. Grey thought it was one of his famous suicide missions. He had seen two of their upper four, and fought with one briefly.

"Of course, Grey, I know you will have an objection. The espada. Worry not, we are more than enough. Their Sexta, Septima, Cuatro, and Segunda are dead. I can deal with the Primera, and the Tres, as you say, is in no condition to fight." he told Grey, who didn't believe him. The master's plan was best. He was about to say so until Jericho spoke up again.

"Myself, Grey, Tybalt, and Ulric will comence the attack. Vladimir, stay here and wait for our reinforcements, then lead them in."

Sun-sun had slept all day, she knew that much. She hadn't been that tired before, ever. She supposed she should go and check on Tia. She swung her legs out of the bed, hitting something on the floor.

Or someone, Di Roy looked up at her as he moved out the way. Sun-sun gasped, she hadn't expected him to be there. How long exactly had he been there?

"Well, about time. Sleep well?" he asked, smiling at her. Had he been there all night, _and_ all day? This was so embarassing, the only thing that could make this worse was if she snored. She felt that familier blush creep up her face.

"Oh, and did you know you snore?" he asked offhandedly.

"No, I don't!" she moaned, damn it this sucked.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm just messing with you." he said, smirking. She threw a pillow at him, which he caught and tossed back. It hit her in the face, and fell on the bed. He was still smiling, and she couldn't help but smile back.

Then she remembered the whole situation with Harribel. She needed to check on her. She got up from her bed, going for the door. She felt a hand close around her wrist, and she turned to see Di Roy looking at her with a serious look.

"Leave her. She is still asleep, I've been looking in on her all day. And assuming she had been awake as long as you had, she needs the rest." Sun-sun was touched that Di Roy had been checking on Harribel for her. It was good to know he cared, because he could have easily been as much of a jackass as Grimmjow, who wouldn't have given a rat's ass about how Tia was doing outside of the bedroom.

Sun-sun settled herself back on her bed. A smile graced her face as Di Roy took the liberty of sitting next to her. He was close, but not close enough that he was touching her. It kind of made her sad that he wasn't touching her.

"Hope this doesn't make you uncomfortable." he said as Sun-sun's face got redder. She hoped he didn't take it as a sign that she didn't want him to be there, but as a sign that she wanted him to get a little closer. She was about to scoot a little closer when her door opened.

"Hey, Sun-sun just so you know Tia's fine and- _hello_ there, who's this?" cooed Apacci, looking at Di Roy with eyes that made Sun-sun really, really, jealous. She shot the other woman a look.

"Apacci, this is Di Roy. Di Roy, this is Apacci." replied Sun-sun, putting an emphisis on Di Roy's name that, coupled with the look Sun-sun was giving her, clearly said, MINE. Apacci backed off immediatly, though she had a frown and knitted eyebrows, though Sun-sun wouldn't put it past her to try to take him anyway, so Sun-sun scooted closer to Di Roy and took his arm. Apacci grumbled something under her breath, then left.

"That went well, don't you think?" she asked him, squeezing his arm. She felt him respond by putting a hand on her leg. It made her shudder, and she couldn't resist anymore. She leaned in close, giving him a kiss on the lips. Not your typical peck, either. It was a minute before she pulled back, though he had been too suprised to let her use tongue however.

They had just pulled apart and were grinning at each other like idiots when Nel walked in. Seeing them so close and looking like that gave her the absolute correct idea. Sun-sun turned bright red as Nel looked at them.

"I'm not interuppting anything am I? They came up with the sock on the doorknob for a reason, you two." she was almost laughing when she noticed the stares that both Di Roy and Sun-sun were giving her.

"Well, I'll be back later, so I'll see you two later..." she said as she turned walking out of the room. Di Roy and Sun-sun looked at each other, and started grinning again.

"People seem to like coming in here at awkward moments, don't they?" asked Di Roy, wrapping his arm around her slight shoulders and drawing her close. She could feel his hard chest through his jacket, and she could smell his incredibly male scent, it was like a new leather jacket sprinkled with oak shavings, and each breath of it made her shudder. Sun-sun leaned her head on his shoulder, and he leaned his head on hers.

It was a position that Sun-sun had seen others in before, but she had never had anyone to do it with herself. She had always been far too shy to pursue a man for herself, until meeting Di Roy. She smiled to herself, reaching a hand up and under Di Roy's open jacket, feeling the rolling muscles of his chest and abs.

Which was when Mila Rose walked in, having heard from Apacci that Sun-sun had a "date" in her room at the moment. She took one look, saw the cuddly moment the two were having, and decided not to ruin it, walking away a few seconds after arriving.

"We really need to shut that door." was all Di Roy had to say.

Findor stalked the hall out side Loly's room. It made him sick to keep listening to her story, he had been in there all day yesterday and most of the day today, and the only thought he had now was how much of a beast Aizen really was.

Why would anyone do that to _anyone_? The things that he did to her didn't bear repeating, but Findor would sit through the the stories, and no matter what, nothing would change his veiw of her. She had been put through hell and worse, and the las thing Loly deserved right now was his scorn.

The very thought of Aizen made him enraged at this point, and the fucker had better have been damn grateful that that Tosen and Gin had snapped out of whatever shit Aizen had done to their brains, and wreaked his ass so bad that he didn't die so much as explode.

"Damn him..." he whispered to himself as he walked back into Loly's room. She had fallen asleep in the short time that he had been outside, curled up on her bed. She occationally twitched and squirmed in her sleep, and mumbled to herself repeatedly.

Findor didn't want to know what she was dreaming about. He knew from experiance however, that waking her up from one of her nightmares, which were incredibly vivid, was an idea that could get you killed.

He settled on the floor, determined to wait.

_Loly walked into the throne room, seeing Aizen seated on his throne. He had called her here with a "special mission" that only she could do. She bowed to him, proud that she was useful. If only she had known what that "mission" had really been._

_ "Aizen-sama." she said, still bowing._

_ "Come here, Loly." he told her, and she complied, coming up to the throne, and looking straight at Aizen. She couldn't hold back the thought that he was devilishly handsome, in a cruel, unfeeling sort of way._

_ Those thoughts ended when he punched her in the stomach with such force that she blacked out for a few seconds, and coughed up blood when she came around. She looked up at Aizen, wondering how she had displeased him. He tutted at her._

_ "Now Loly, it's only the foreplay...don't pass out from pleasure just yet." he whispered in her ear, kneeling so he could do so. Her blood ran cold at the words. Foreplay? Before she could get her thoughts properly in order, he kicked her in the side, launching across the throne room until she hit a wall. She almost passed out again. A tear forced it's way out, she thought she might have a broken rib or two._

_ Loly lifted herself up to her elbows. She had to get out of here. Aizen-sama had never acted like this before._

_ Before she could lift herself to her feet, Aizen was before her, his blade drawn. Loly tried to move as he moved the sword in her direction, but was too slow. His blade pierced her shoulder and fractured her collarbone. She screamed and rolled around on the floor, clutching the wound. Aizen tutted her again._

_ "Loly, Loly. What seems to be the matter? Don't you like it? ...Such a shame." he said, putting a foot on her chest to stop her from moving so much. He put his sword to her neck and made a little cut. Loly gasped but it was nothing compared to her other two wounds._

_ Aizen sheathed his blade, and layed himself on top of her. She squirmed, trying to get away. He began to lick the cut he had made, making her scream again._

_ "Please stop..." she pleaded, but he sqeezed her broken ribs to quiet her, making her yelp._

_ "That's much better." he said as she stopped moving, with the exeption of her sobs. She could no longer hold back her tears as the attack went on._

_ And it went on for hours. At the end, she was missing an arm and half a leg. As Aizen pulled his pants back on, he looked at her, which was better than she could do, seeing as her eye was swollen shut, and the one covered by her hollow mask was covered by her stray clothing. Aizen called in Tosen._

_ "Take this to the nurses. Tell them she got in a fight with Grimmjow."_

_ Tosen nodded, and gathered up the three pieces that made up Loly. Though it looked to her, as the stray piece of cloth shifted from her eye, like he was angry, very angry. She supposed that this went against his strict sense of justice. But Loly knew Tosen could do nothing, he was hypnotized by Aizen's zanpakuto, and had no control of his thoughts beyond the most basic traits of his personality._

_ Loly forgave Tosen. He was raped in mind as surely as she had been in body._

Loly woke up screaming, fully expecting to be missing her arm and leg. But she wasn't, that was when she remembered she was in her room.

She sighed and layed back. Aizen was dead, appearantly. Tosen had helped the three defecting espada and Gin kill him.

She was finally safe. She looked over to her door.

And screamed. There was a body hung in her door. It's skin had been torn off, and forced down it's throat. There were two distinct white claws where the hands would be. She wailed in torment.

It was Findor.

"Glad to see you're up, yeah. Your friend got Jericho mad, yeah." said a figure off to her left. She looked to see a cane poised above her face.

"You can fight, yeah?" asked the man as he raised his cane to strike. Loly was about to roll away, when a flash of white, brown, and silver crossed the cane's path.

Metal clashed on metal as her defender blocked the cane.

Aaroniero was stunned. How the hell did she do that? He hadn't known that any woman could be that _flexable._ He would be willing to bet money that he couldn't get glotonria's tenticles to move like that.

Cirucci and Aaroniero watched the arcane human act of yoga, totally in awe of the bright young woman who was supposed to be teaching the veiwers of the video how to bend in such a ridiculous manner. The woman had once crossed both of her legs behind her head.

Aaroniero came to the conclution that humans were infinately more bendable that he was. They had found a television set in Aizen's old quarters, or more specificly, Cirucci had, while snooping through the things that were still there. She had immediatly dragged Aaroniero down here as soon as she'd found the thing.

He soon found himself unable to bear looking at the screen. His muscles began to tear off of his bones just at seeing the tricks done. Appearantly, Cirucci had too, because she switched the thing off.

"That woman was a freak." was all she had to say. She went over to the oversized bed and sat, her legs and hips almost disappearing into the mattress. She sighed as she layed back, trying to cuddle further into the soft mattress.

"I'm sleeping in here from now on...Aaroniero, you have _got_ to try this...I think I'm in heaven..." she sighed, patting a spot right next to her. Aaroniero had learned a long time ago that Cirucci got what Cirucci wanted, so he climbed into the bed.

He immediatly agreed with her that the bed was good. It figured that Aizen had gotten all of the best things he could, thought Aaroniero. He was sure that Cirucci would make good on her promise to sleep here, and he would probably join her.

He closed his eyes as he layed on his back on the bed. He thought he could take a nap right now. That thought was shattered as Cirucci rolled over onto him, putting a hand on his chest. He shifted his bottom head to look at her, and she was looking up at him, her eyes sparkling with that barely controlled mischief that always graced her features.

"Transform..." she whispered, tracing circles on his chest with a gloved finger. Aaroniero immediatly saw where this was going, and complied.

One of his heads pressed against the glass of the tank, starting to take on the shape of a normal head, while the tank shrank to fit within the confines of the new face. It was always a bit disorienting at first, seeing as he went from four eyes down to two, but he got over that quickly as Cirucci began licking his new lips.

Aaroniero wrapped her in his arms as she pressed closer to him. He smiled at her. Cirucci loved to do what she reffered to as "cuddling", where she would press as close as possible to him and keep kissing him. The currant record for one of their cuddle sessions was four hours, and Aaroniero had to admit that he liked having her that close. It made him feel complete.

Cirucci had always loved to cuddle with things. It had started with a giant stuffed bear she kept in her room, which was becoming worn from many nights with it tucked close to her as she slept.

But she had her favorite cuddle toy right here, and he never seemed to get worn out. He had once stayed with her for four hours, and that just so happened to be the best four hours of making out of her life. Needless to say she felt like she had run a mile when that was done.

Cirucci pressed her self closer to Aaroniero's chest, which was difficult since she was already almost glued there, but in her mind there was always room to improve. She felt Aaroniero's arms tighten around her in response, and she smiled as she began to kiss him again, using her tongue to pry his mouth open.

What had started as a cuddle session quickly turned into a make out session as Cirucci deepened the kiss even more. She groaned as their tongues duelled, and he quickly took dominace of the kiss as she let him do all of the work.

He teased her a little at first, licking her teeth more than anything, but he stopped as soon as he felt her try to take back dominance. That was when he started playing with her tongue, rolling his own all around it as she moaned her approval.

Cirucci hadn't had Aaroniero pegged as a great kisser. She had thought she would have to teach him how to do it, but he had suprised her with his ability, even though he professed that he had never made out before. Cirucci had learned quickly to just let him do the work, as he was good, so good in fact that Cirucci sometimes didn't want to pull away for air.

Or in this case, forgot to. She broke the kiss quickly, gasping for breath as Aaroniero smiled at her. She knew he loved it when she did that. As Cirucci panted for breath, she felt Aaroniero start to run his hands over her back, and she could feel the writhing tenticles of Glotonria through the thick glove that imprisoned them. She groaned, the tenticles always felt like a good massage artist was working on her.

"How amusing. Lackey lovers..." said a voice from behind her. Cirucci turned as she was greeted by several faces of the same monster.

Mila Rose giggled to herself. Sun-sun probobly had no idea how red her face was during that kiss. She had always been a little shy, and Mila thought that it was good to see her rubbing gums with a hot guy, or at least attempting to.

She had no idea when that Di Roy character had gotten into Sun-sun's room, or how she had failed to get him for herself, but Sun-sun seemed to really like him. Mila Rose hadn't seen her look at anyone like she did him, just like she had never heard of a relationship forming in just a couple of days.

She took a moment to pout to herself. Why couldn't she have a man like that? Maybe Sun-sun would be willing to share a little...he could surely handle more than one woman, right?

"Oh, you and Ulric would get along just fine, Missy." said an arrancar sitting against the wall of the hallway. She looked at him questioningly, could he read her thoughts or something? How did he know she was looking for a man?

"Trust me, I know every hateful or angry thought that crosses your mind. Right now you're angry at Sun-sun for having a better man than you used to. You and Ilfort just had sex once and he dumped you for Melony, isn't that right?" Mila Rose was starting to get scared. Every word out of his mouth was not only exactly what she least wanted to hear, but it was also true.

"Get out of my head..." she whispered as he stood. He looked at her with his dead eyes, and she backed up a step as he advanced. He backed her up into the wall.

"I am, now your thoughts have shifted from anger. And from that look on your face, I think you're afraid of me." he purred, leaning a hand on the wall beside her. He put his face close to Mila Rose's ear. She pushed at his chest, but he caught her hand, pulling his head back and bringing her hand to his face. As the strange arrancar began to kiss her fingers, she slapped him across the face, making his head snap around.

"Heh. I think I'll keep you for myself...I like women with spirit." he said as he grabbed her other hand and forced her against the wall and began licking her neck. she thrashed and screamed as soon as she felt his tongue on her skin.

"Crush, Verruga!" came a voice at the end of the hall. The arrancar whipped his head around as a giant, hairy fist crashed into his face. He released Mila as he staggered back. She looked up at her rescuer as the arrancar frowned.

"Tesra?" she asked, bewidered. He looked down at her.

"Yes. Now get back while I teach this fool not to mess with my property." he told her. She felt anger simmer in her at the property comment, but she let it slide for now.

Tesra raised a fist, pointing it at the arrancar who had been touching his woman.

"Cero." he said, as the red beam lanced from his fist, only to be knocked aside by a slap from the man. Tesra wasn't worried, his Cero had always been a little weak, which was why he didn't use it much.

"Tesra, why fight me? The one who causes you so many sleepless nights is your real enemy. When your eye aches, and when it itches, it's her fault. Mila Rose's little friend blasted your eye out...why not take your anger out on her?" said the arrancar. Tesra didn't know why, but his words made alot of sense. Why not beat the little slut and her friend? They had hurt him, so he had every right to hurt them back.

"Tesra, don't listen to him..." said Mila Rose behind him. Her voice made him very angry, so he turned.

Mila Rose watched as Tesra turned. She could tell he was buying into what the mind reader was saying. He was using Tesra's own nature against him. Mila Rose scooted down the wall in an attempt to escape them.

"Hatred is a very potent force, missy. I've had an entire afterlife to figure that out. My name is Grey, if you cared to know." Mila Rose felt Tesra's fist crash into her stomach while she was distracted by Grey's words.

Tesra's fist raised and came crashing down on her leg. She screamed, and his other hand slapped her across the face. She yelped, her head snapping to the side. Mila Rose waited to be beaten to death, but the next blow never came. She looked up, and saw Tesra's fists had been caught by a figure that was only a foot shorter than Tesra's massive release.

Yammy crushed the bones in Tesra's hands with barely any effort. He screamed as he fell backwards, holding out the shattered hands so they would not be touched. He grunted, and looked down at her, then over at Grey.

"You okay?" he said, staring at the man, who was sneering at Tesra.

"Y-yeah." was all she had to say to the giant. She had always been a bit scared of him, he stood almost a full two feet taller than her own five nine. Yammy grunted again, curling his hands into fists.

"And just who are you, big guy? The local idiot?" asked Grey, drawing his blade. Yammy showed a proufond lack of care at the insult, and charged at Grey.

Starrk could feel the elevated riatsus throughout Las Noches. Yammy and an unknown attacker had begun to fight, and earlier he was sure he felt Nnoitra's fraccion release. Just before that he felt the only one of Barragan's fraccions left release, then die quickly. He could also feel Aaroniero and Cirucci with yet another unknown getting ready to fight.

Starrk was sure one of the four unknowns within the castle was heading straight for him. It was the strongest of the four, almost certainly. Lilinette hung close to him as he sought it out. The Little girl could feel that Starrk was getting ready to fight, so she stayed behind him in case whatever unlucky idiot he was going after wouldn't go for her.

The riatsu of the one he was chasing was getting closer. he wondered if this was the one who had killed Rudobon, seeing as Tia had never told him who had done it, only that it had been done. Starrk hoped so, he didn't want someone like that anywhere near Las Noches.

"So you're the primera...the master has warned me about you." said a voice from above him. Starrk looked up, and was immediatly forced to use sonido to avoid the mace decending at his head. The floor cracked as the man's mace made contact.

"Cero." said Starrk, and his blue cero raced towards the man, who negated the cero with his own white one.

"Impressive power...and yet you are still holding back quite a bit. Very well. I am Jericho Cross, Cuatro espada." he said, gripping his mace in two hands. Starrk drew Los Lobos.

Every arrancar in Las Noches felt the two build their power. And niether side was sure if the battle between the two titans would destroy them all.

Cirucci, holding a cake with seventeen candles on it: Hey everyone! The characters of We Are Espada would like to announce Aaroniero Arruruie's seventeenth birthday!

_**Aaroniero: Indeed.**_

Me: Aaroniero, how did you get those party hats in your tank?

Di Roy and Sun-Sun: Don't ask.

To my reveiwers:

Devapaths: glad to hear you like it, and I hope that you keep reading and find out the answers to your questions.

Darkmachines: Yeah...we're all sad about Rudobon, and sad about Tia losing him. But we'll see if she doesn't get any revenge on Grey or Ulric.

Striker-Master of Hearts: DAMN IT NO FUCKING FLAMES OF YOUTH! With that out of my system, JOE, I encourage you to keep reading anyway, even though you're new to Bleach. Reading fanfictions is how I learned alot of what I know now.

Sol21: Yes. Yes he did. Last chapter may have been all plot, but this was all people getting ready to fight, even though Sayalmar has no part in this chapter.


	7. Chapter 7

Aaroniero, still wearing the form of Kaien, looked at the man from his position under Cirucci, who had yet to move from on top of him. He had grown mouths all over his body, and some had eyes and noses to go with them.

"You...you're..." gasped Cirucci, looking at the monster with wide eyes. Aaroniero knew exactly what she was thinking. This was an ability he had seen in only one man, and that man was long dead now.

"Ulric Gangre. You should be dead." pointed out Aaroniero as he pushed Cirucci off of him. She crawled towards Golondrina, which was laying on the floor next to the bed. Ulric looked at her with angry eyes.

"Don't even think about it, Lackey." he told her, fixing at least seven eyes on her. Cirucci froze, and Aaroniero stood up, blocking his veiw of her.

"How are you alive? I saw you die, Ulric, you were blasted into at least ten parts." Aaroniero asked him, and Ulric's eyes cut to him for a moment, giving Cirucci time to grab her zanpakuto. Ulric was immediatly enraged as he tried to take it away from her by mutating a long, abnormally thin limb that extended with a set of clawed fingers.

Aaroniero lopped off the disgusting thing with one swipe of Brujeria. Ulric didn't appear to feel the pain of the lost limb, and he slashed at Aaroniero with his blade. Aaroniero blocked with Nejibana, which he had summoned seconds before. A look crossed Ulric's face, and Aaroniero sonidoed away just as Ulric vomited his acid.

"Impressive, Aaroniero. I thought you had forgotten that little trick of mine." said all of Ulric's mouths as the floor that the acid touched disentigrated. Aaroniero appeared behind Ulric, his blades held in a ready stance. Ulric turned, holding his own sword loose at his side.

"It is hard to forget such a disgusting habit." Aaroniero remarked, ducking the slash that Ulric sent his way in anger. Ulric smiled as he prepared to vomit his acid again. Golondrina smashed him through the wall into the hallway. Aaroniero looked at Cirucci, who winked and blew a kiss. He smiled as he stepped through the giant hole in the wall, followed by Cirucci.

Ulric lay in a crater in the floor, one arm, the only limb he retained, flailed in rage. Golondrina had bisected him diagonally, starting at one shoulder, and ending at the hip. Aaroniero didn't think for one second that this would kill Ulric, and it didn't.

Flesh began pouring out of the massive rent in his body, moulding into new legs and a new torso and arms.

"Lackeys...you will pay for this insult!" he screamed as he began making ridiculous amounts of heavily muscled limbs grow out of him. Aaroniero guessed that Ulric had gotten stronger, much stonger if what his pequisa was telling him was true.

"Surge through the skies and rage through the seas, Nejibana." said Aaroniero, releasing Nejibana's shikai by twirling the blade in his fingers. It elongated into a trident, and water began pouring out of both tips.

"I see you got a hold of a shinigami's body, Aaroniero. It seems I'll have a challange after all." said Ulric, pointing his sword at Aaroniero, but focusing his eyes on Cirucci.

"Cirucci...so you're alive too. It took me awhile to recognize you when you were making out with Aaroniero." he said, looking at Cirucci with that jealous and spiteful gaze. Aaroniero had developed a deep hatred for Ulric. He had a habit of making everyone hate him, with the exeption of one Lucion Grey.

"Leave off that old line, Ulric. I told you a long time ago that I didn't want you. You always had to break up any conversation I was having with a man. You're a creep, and you're far too controlling...and another thing..." said Cirucci, waving a finger at Ulric.

"SILENCE WRETCH! YOU ARE MINE! AND NO ONE STEALS MY PROPORTY!" shouted Ulric, stomping forward on his seven muscular legs, crushing the tiles of the floor, while three oversized arms reached for Cirucci, and a fourth swung his sword blindly at Aaroniero.

Cirucci jumped over the lumbering monster, lopping off a hand that got too close with Golondrina, while Aaroniero knocked Ulric's sword away with Brujeria and shoved Nejibana into one of Ulric's shoulder joints, making the limb fall limp. He pulled Nejibana out with a spray of blood, and Ulric screamed in agony.

Cirucci slammed Golondrina into Ulric's back, making him fall forward, blood gushing out of the massive gash. Ulric screamed again, and Aaroniero could see Ulric's spinal cord through all of the shattered bone and bloody muscle surrounding it.

"You have...both gotten...much stronger. It appears I have no choice." said Ulric as he raised himself to his feet, at the same time growing new bone and muscle over his spine.

"I would have been able to handle one of you. But now I am fighting a pair of equals, not two inferiors, as it was in the past." he said as he vomited acid on his sword. He then looked at them with every mouth smiling.

"Betray all, Traidor."

Loly couldn't tear her eyes away from the interlocking cane and sword. The arrancar that had been about to attack her was struggling to make the cane move, while the one who had blocked it simply held it there. Loly backed up, looking at her savior, her eyes flying wide. He had dark skin, with braided brown hair, with a large white jacket covering most of him, and a silver mask over his eyes.

"Kaname?" she whispered. Tosen smiled and kicked the arrancar in the stomach, sending him crashing into the wall, dazing him as he slid to the floor. He turned and "looked" at her, even though she knew he couldn't see her.

"Indeed, Loly. I am sorry." he said, looking somber. Loly got up, reaching a hand for him. He grabbed the hand when it got too close and took a step back.

"What for, Kaname?" she asked, drawing her hand back. She knew that he could tell exactly where she was, Tosen, like many blind men before him, had that sense of when other people moved, and where they were. So she took a step back as well.

"Justice has taken long in finding you, Loly. I failed you. When you needed me most, I was weak. I am sorry." he said, his face looking like a man who had all of his life's work destroyed in a second.

"Cute, yeah. But you're still fighting me." said the arrancar as he lifted himself off of the floor. He placed a hand on the cane's head, and pulled. A thin rapier revealed itself from within the metal cane. The arrancar discarded the cane part by leaning it against the wall.

"Begone, I have no need of a fight with you. This need not end in blood." said Tosen, turning slightly to address the arrancar. The man smiled and pointed the sword at Tosen. Loly didn't think for a second that the other arrancar would back down.

"Thanks for the offer, yeah. But that is sadly not mine to decide." said the man, not lowering the blade at all. Tosen sighed as he turned to face the other man. Loly knew it went against his grain to spill any sort of blood, unless it be of those who did not fight in justice's name.

"Very well then." sighed Tosen as he raised his blade again.

"The name's Tybalt Telupac, Sexta Espada. You must be Kaname Tosen, one of the traitor captains. Hope you liked being mind fucked by that fag Aizen, yeah." said Tybalt, grinning as his eyes scanned for an opening in Tosen's defence. Tosen took no heed of the taunt as he did the same with his sense of hearing to Tybalt. It was only a second before they were done sizing each other up.

Loly lost sight of both of them as they used sonido and shunpo to close. A hole appeared in her wall as the combatants plowed through it so they could get to a more open battle site, the wind of their passing made the sickening corpse of Findor swing back and forth. She could no longer stand to stay in the same room as his body, so she exited through the hole in her wall, intent on watching the fight.

The pair had not done each other any damage yet, but Tybalt was at the moment on the attack it seemed, putting out a blistering amount of seemingly wild slashes and thrusts that Tosen was hardly pressed to deflect. Loly twirled a hand into her purple hair as he watched, pulling on it occationally. It was a habit she had never kicked, and she did it whenever she was stressed.

Suddenly Tybalt's eyes went from wild to cunning in a second, and his sword strokes reflected this as he scored a cut to Tosen's forearm and cheek. Kaname didn't flinch as he took advantage of the opening that Tybalt left on his right side, making a shallow slice with Suzumushi that made Tybalt growl and jump into the air. Tosen let him go as he examined the cut on his forearm, while Tybalt checked his side.

Loly could swear that she felt the tempurature in the hall drop as Tybalt stared at Tosen. Then he used sonido to close again, his blade poised to strike Tosen's heart. Kaname blocked the slash, but was taken by suprize when Tybalt unleashed the blue cero he had charged in his hand.

Tosen was blasted back a small distance, but the distraction was all Tybalt needed. A cut opened on Tosen's chest, and Loly let out a little scream when blood started leaking out. Kaname was far from finished, however, and Tybalt had left himself open as he made his cut.

Blood spurted out of Tybalt's left arm as Tosen removed Suzumushi from the stab wound. Loly knew he had missed the major artery in Tybalt's arm, seeing as he did not immediatly pass out from a severe and sudden drop in blood pressure.

Tybalt backed off again, reassessing his opponent, and in a move that Tosen would be unable to detect, Tybalt's eyes flicked to Loly. Tybalt disappeared a second later using sonido.

Mila Rose watched as Yammy's massive fist crashed down on the floor where Grey had been half a second before, leaving a giant hole and making cracks run out from the point of impact. As he raised the fist he tried to look for Grey.

"Not to bright are you, big guy? I'm up here..." came Grey's voice. Yammy looked up, and was met by Grey's foot as he decended from the ceiling. It barely phased Yammy, and the giant reached up to grab the offender, but Grey sonidoed away. Mila Rose saw him off to Yammy's side.

Grey's blade sparked off of Yammy's iron skin, and was suprised as the back of the Diaz's fist smashed into his jaw. Mila watched as Grey was hurled into the wall, and through it. Yammy laughed as Grey failed to appear out of the hole.

"Looks like you ain't half as badass as you think you are!" the giant howled, pointing at the hole and laughing again.

Mila Rose was not fooled. That said, she knew that Yammy's pequisa had never developed well, so she knew he could not sense it, but Grey's riatsu was rising. Mila looked at him as he continued to laugh.

"Yammy...he's not done..." she informed him tenitively. He looked around and appeared to notice her, as if he had forgotten her presance.

"I smashed him through a damn wall woman! He is fucking done! But if you don't think so, here!" he yelled, opening his mouth and charging his dark red cero. Grey was just stepping out of the hole when Yammy let the blast loose.

"Oh shi-" was all he got out before he was engulfed in the red energy. Mila Rose could tell that Yammy had not held anything back when he was charging that thing, and that there were many destroyed rooms and walls in Las Noches after that. Yammy grunted at her, and took a step forward towards her.

"Looks like you were right...he was tougher than he looked. He's dead now though, for sure." he said, yawning loudly. Mila Rose thought Yammy was quite a bit like Starrk in that respect. He was always either sleeping or eating, but unlike Starrk, Yammy had a tangible reason to do so. His power increased with large amounts of inactivity and gluttony, and Mila was quite surprised he had not gotten unimaginably fat over the last couple of years.

"I think so...I don't feel him an...ymore" she said, clipping the last part of the last word off, and then finishing the sentance and dragging it out. He was back.

"What, what is it? Tell me!" Yammy said petulantly. Mila looked at him with fear in her eyes. His petty expression grew concerned as he saw her's.

"He...he...he was...gone..." she whispered. There was no way he was still alive, she thought. His riatsu was totally gone, not even the little bit one had left when someone hid it. Yammy was looking at her with concern, and with good reason. She had started to tremble. He was dead, yet he had begun to amass an amount of power she had rarely seen.

"So at least one understands. I was not the Quinta for no reason. I had an extraordinary amount of riatsu for an adjuchas class arrancar, to be sure. But almost everyone in the Espada was stronger than me. I was given my position on acount of a special power..." he said as he tore out the length of intestine that was hanging out of his stomach. It came free with a wet ripping noise, and sprayed blood on the floor.

But Mila Rose was focused on his head. Half of it was missing as he spoke, and she could clearly see his brain as the skull regenerated around it.

"...I can regenerate without end, even from nothing but particles. Not to say the process is pleasant, but hey, near immortality has it's perks." said Grey as Yammy fired a cero. He disappeared in the red energy. He came out unscathed.

"Damn, I even think Ulric would be proud of me for living through that first one, let alone regenerating from it." he said, swinging the length of intestine through the air.

"You are one sick freak, dickweed." said Yammy as he charged another cero. Grey just laughed and sonidoed away as the blast was released. Yammy looked pissed beyond words.

"Tsk, tsk. What foul language runs through your head when you're so angry, Yammy." said Grey, smoothing out the new tears in his clothes that he had appearantly just become aware of.

"I'll show you angry, you pansy ass bitch!" he yelled, smashing a fist into Grey's face. He dropped back a few steps from the force, but showed little real damage.

"Nice punch. Now it's my turn." said Grey as he used sonido to appear behind Yammy. He grabbed the giant's ponytail, and throwing, yes, actually throwing Yammy into Mila Rose and toppling them both over, with Yammy landing on top of Mila.

It felt like a train had landed on her. No, scratch that, a train was lighter. Mila Rose couldn't breathe, and she tried to push Yammy's titanic weight off of her. She failed until he came to his senses and figured out that he was not laying on a warm, soft, smooth skinned and large breasted pillow.

She was grateful when he lifted himself off of her. Mila Rose took in a huge breath and panted in the cool air into her starved lungs. Yammy looked down at her from his standing vantage point, and to Mila he looked sympathetic.

"Sorry about that." he said, turning to Grey.

"Yeah...what...ever..." she gasped out, proping herself up on a elbow. Grey was gone, or messing with them. Mila Rose thought the second was more likely. Then he hit her pequisa like walking into a wall. She rolled to her feet and looked back.

"You and your pretty friend are fun to mess with, big guy." said Grey, his eyes cutting to her.

"And I bet you would be _especially_ fun to mess around with Missy..." he cooed, looking at her through slitted eyes and licking his lips. A giant form loomed behind him.

"LIKE GODDAMN HELL! SHE'S MINE! **MINE!**" screamed Tesra, bringing down an elbow on Grey. He just looked over at Tesra, with the massive warthog-like monster staring at him in absolute rage.

"You just got shit out of luck, fucktard."

Di Roy bolted to his feet, feeling the massive increases in power all over the fortress. Starrk, Aaroniero, Yammy, and to his shock, Tosen, with a bucket load of others. Sun-sun's eyes were wide as platters, and Di Roy grabbed her by the hand and gently lifted her up into him.

"We need to help them." said Di Roy as he guided her towards the door. She looked up at him, worry surfacing in her eyes. He stopped, captivated by her face. Her eyes were absolutly beautiful, even filed with distress, and her lips were bruised and red from their kissing, because he couldn't quite call it making out without tongue. For some reason she wouldn't let him use it, even though he was sure she had tried to use it on their first kiss.

"Di Roy, what about Tia? We can't just leave her..." she whispered, as if there were someone that would overhear them.

"She'll be fine, she's a big girl, not to mention the Tres espada." said Di Roy. Sun-sun's eyes got a little wider and he was sure that he saw a tear forming in her left eye. Damn it.

"Fine. We'll stay with Tia." mumbled Rinker as he held her closer. Sun-sun smiled into his shoulder, and wrapped and arm around his neck. She planted a kiss on his cheek before disengageing and heading for Harribel's room. Di Roy stood there for a second, wondering if he had been had, then decided it didn't matter. He followed her out of her room to the door marked three, which was open from Sun-sun moving through it.

Di Roy poked his head in to see Sun-sun sitting on Tia's rather large bed, stirring the dark skinned woman by gently rubbing her back. Harribel shifted a little and murmured something that Di Roy couldn't hear. Sun-sun whispered something back, and her eyes flicked to him.

Tia lifted herself up on an elbow and looked over her shoulder at him. Her mask prevented him from seeing her expression, but there was a smile in her eyes. She whispered something to Sun-sun and dropped herself back down to the bed. Sun-sun smiled a little and beckoned him in.

Di Roy stepped in and walked over to Sun-sun. He was uncomfortable in Tia's room, mostly because he was in an espada's presance, and his experiance with espada was limited to Grimmjow, which was not a very good way to represent the whole organization to say the least.

"So...Di Roy...you look different. I'm guessing whatever Szayel did worked?" she asked him. Her face was buried in her pillow and it made her slightly difficult to understand, so it took a few seconds for him to answer. So she knew about his past then. Interesting.

"Yeah...it worked." was all he had to say. He found it difficult to speak to the woman, who had recieved nothing but sexual harrassment behind her back from Grimmjow. He had never really approved, and Grimmjow had ragged on him for that as well.

"I can tell. You didn't look quite as hot last time I saw you..." she said into her pillow, making Sun-sun gasp and turn red. She huffed as she gave Tia a little tap on the back. It was as close as she could come to punishing Tia.

"Heh...she passed the jealousy test. I think you're in, Di Roy...just remember, no sex until the fifth date..." she said, laughing into the pillow. Sun-sun squeaked and tapped her again. Di Roy was laughing as well. This chick had a sense of humor he could get. Sun-sun huffed again, crossing her arms.

"Sun-sun, don't think I didn't see those bruised lips...having a make out session before coming here, were you two?" came her voice again. Sun-sun groaned and hid her face with that sleeve.

"Tia, stop it..." she said, and Tia laughed darkly, lifting herself off of the bed and flipping over so she could sit up. Her eyes had lost the smile.

"Sun-sun...take it from me...don't leave him alone. Not for a second. If you do, he'll get himself into trouble. Just like...just like...oh god..." she said, putting her face in her knees and sobbing. Sun-sun was there in an instant, rubbing the other woman's back.

"Tia, no. It wasn't your fault." soothed Sun-sun, her face falling from an embarrassed blushing beauty to a saddened and lusterless one. The change concerned Rinker.

"No...no! It was! He's dead and..." she cut herself off in the middle of her sentance. Her eyes had grown wide as platters.

"...And he's here. Grey..." growled Tia. She launched herself out of her bed, grabbing Tiburon from it's place on a chair.

"Grey? What do you mean? Tia!" yelled Sun-sun, but Tia was already gone. Sonido had never worked so well.

"What do you think she meant?" Sun-sun asked Di Roy. He just looked at her and shrugged.

Starrk blocked the mace again. Every time the thing rang against Los Lobos, it sent a shiver up his arm. Jericho was smiling the whole time, seeing as Starrk had yet to throw a return swing at him. He had learned much about Jericho's style, but he was sure that Jericho had been watching him in turn.

"Arn't you going to attack me? This will be really boring if you don't even try..." said Jericho, throwing a backswing by flipping around, bringing the mace in a full swing with all of his body weight behind it.

Starrk sonidoed out of the way, but charged inside the other man's guard when the swing missed. A quick stab pierced Jericho's hierro, but it felt like he had just stabbed a brick wall with a dull bobby pin. He got nowhere fast, and Jericho used the opening to smash the spike at the bottom of his weapon into Starrk's side.

They sonidoed away from each other, catching their breath.

"Looks like you were just warming up there, Primera." mocked Jericho, looking at the ragged tear in the skin of his arm. Starrk didn't say anything, the spike had not pierced his hierro, but it had knocked the wind out of him.

Lilinette was behind a pillar, watching the fight with wide eyes. Starrk had to protect her. He looked at Jericho, who it looked like was ready to fight again.

"Your friends are giving Ulric a problem. I didn't know Aaroniero and Cirucci had gotten that strong. Grey must be having fun with those three he's got over by him, and even Tybalt has a little friend to play with." said Jericho, clicking his cowboy style boots together.

Starrk could tell he was getting to something, and he was informed as to what a second later.

"I wonder how you'd be doing with more of us attacking...Vladimir should be blowing into town with our two friends soon." said Jericho, whistling an old western style tune.

There were more of them? Starrk wasn't sure how many more the espada could take. All they had left were Nnoitra and Szayel, Tia wasn't in much of a condition to fight. Even with Tosen coming out of nowhere, there wasn't much they could do if more guys like this started falling out of the woodwork.

Starrk settled in for the continuing fight. He needed to finish this fight soon, in case he was needed elsewhere.

Grey stared up at the enraged form of Tesra, whose elbow still rested upon his skull.

"Just how do you figure that?" the warthog snorted in Grey's face. Tesra was trying to reach for Grey's neck with one of his crushed hands, but the immense damage done to them by Yammy made every twitch a lesson in agony.

"Because, by some chance let's say you're an ant pointing a sword at a lion. No matter how many times you stab me, I just get angrier and crush you. Get the picture?" asked Grey as he reached out and squeezed Tesra's hand.

Tesra's scream of pain echoed in the hall and made Mila Rose cover her ears. Yammy didn't appear to notice it as he charged again, launching bala from his fists as he closed with Grey. The Bala made impact with Grey's arms and head, but did no real damage that didn't regenerate in seconds.

Yammy's charge did nothing to save Tesra from Grey. The giant was merely smacked aside as soon as he got within arm's reach. Meanwhile Tesra still wailed in torment as the crushed bones in his hands rubbed together as his tormenter exerted yet more force on the extremity.

"I'm getting tired of you, pig. Time to exit, stage blown all to hell." said Grey, charging bala in his hands. Mila Rose almost had time to call a warning as Tesra's left arm was removed at the elbow by bala. Grey continued by blasting off his leg, then the rest of the arm.

Mila Rose screamed and covered her eyes as the dismemberment continued, Tesra never stopped screaming, and even from where she was standing she was being pelted by his blood. She dared to open her eyes once.

And that was when all of his internal organs were blown out, directly onto her. She screamed bloody murder and tried to tear out of the net of intestines, only to be smacked in the face by what she fervantly hoped was not Tesra's liver. Every inch of her was covered by his blood, and she could swear that she could feel his insides pulsing on her skin.

Mila opened her eyes again to scream, and that was when she saw his head, caught in the grip of the merciless murderer who had taken him apart with the precision of a scalpal.

Tesra was still alive. His mouth was still moving and his eyes still darted about, as if seeking escape from Grey's hands. His body was gone, the majority of it draped over Mila like streamers thrown carelessly in a tree.

"Oh god...oh god...Yammy." She managed to stutter out. Yammy looked at her with eyes that showed great concern. She turned her face toward him, and he was forced to look into her eyes.

It was a look he would never forget. Her eyes were haunted, and seemed to have lost all color. Her face was contorted into a mix of fear, revulsion, and horror. To be honest, he never wanted to see a look that came half as close to the look on her face again.

"You...you have to kill him..." she stuttered on. He looked at her, almost getting angry at her.

"I can't kill him. He regenerates from anything I throw at him." replied Yammy, ready to try anyway.

"Not him! No...no...kill Tesra..." she whispered. Yammy looked at her.

"He is dead, give it a moment." she looked at him with that expression again. He charged his bala and obliterated the head that had been Tesra. Grey stood there a moment, then turned towards Yammy. He looked very angry, and Yammy would know.

"That was a bad move, big guy. I'm going to-" his threat was cut off along with his head. The body continued to move, while the head turned to ashes. The body grew a new head promptly.

Mila Rose felt a giant hand grab the entrails that wrapped her. A second later the sticky feeling of the organs was gone as Yammy lifted them, and tore them in places, off of her. He threw them down the hall so she would be as far away from them as possible.

She stepped into Yammy trembling. He was suprised by the gesture, so did nothing. He had always assumed the woman to be scared of him. And why wouldn't she be, with what he had done to that nurse? Her actions confused him to say the least.

"What happened?" she managed to say. Yammy grunted once, pretended he didn't like her pressing herself against him, and told her what he saw.

"I think Harribel just happened."

Vladimir stared down the two newcomers with lidless eyes. He held his spear at the ready, not sure if these two were entirely trustworthy. One was smiling almost insanely at him, while the other just stood there and stared past him, as if he was not worth looking at.

"Alright, you two. We're moving out." he told them, turning and using sonido to lead them. They followed without question.

The fire that Vladimir had carefully maintained since he had arrived began to die. But by the fading light, if there had been anyone to see him, another arrancar entered the camp. He glanced at the lowering flames and fed them a bit of his power to make them flare up.

Now he was clearly visible. He was covered in rusted armor, and he dragged his blade through the sand with little care for any damage it might suffer. His mask covered the left side of his face with a white and green pattern that one could become lost in. He was unnaturally thin and frail looking, as if all the meat in his body had been removed.

"Arkhan. It's been too long, perhaps you would like to come here and lay down with me? I'm ever so lonely...so lonely..." came a female voice from behind him. Arkhan turned to see a woman with her flowing red hair spread in a halo around her in the sand where she lay.

"Veronica...do not think I am to be...manipulated by you. The...master...has a plan for us to carry out." he ended his sentance with a wracking series of caughs that almost made him drop his sword. Veronica didn't move from her spot to help him, or ask if he was alright.

"Then you'll leave this poor woman all alone for the night? With no warmth, no man, no lover? How cruel...to leave me so alone..." she said. Arkhan stared at her, she was a beautiful woman, with perfect creamy white skin and green eyes that shone like the oceans of the living world. She had large assets that had made those below him drool like mad dogs, and fine, inviting looking hips. He was lucky indeed he was immune to her charms. Her flowing white dress blew about her in the wind, making her look like the woman in the tower. He shut the the thought off. That did not bear thinking about.

"You...have the fire for...warmth, girl..." he wheezed out. She frowned, but did not look at him.

"Where is my Thorn, he would not be so cruel..." whined Veronica as she lifted herself from the sand. She walked over to the fire, and layed back down there.

"No one is going to comfort you here." rasped Arkhan, moving around the fire so he could sit across from her. He waited for the bout of self hate she would bring to the surface as they waited.

"Why doesn't anyone like me? It's because I'm ugly, isn't it?" Arkhan was about to sigh but he caught himself. He was dead set on ignoring her.

"Is it my eyes? They're such an ugly shade of green...or is it my hair? It's just so red...what about my boobs, they're so small...my legs too, they're so...I don't know! Why does everyone hate me?" she shouted, beginning to weep uncontrollably, and flailing her arms. She continued like this for hours. Arkhan intervened only once, and that was when she tried to commit suicide by shoving sand down her throat, possibly hoping to replicate being buried alive.

He watched her like a hawk until she fell asleep, her breath hitching every once in awhile in her sleep. She shivered visibly, even though she was right next to the fire.

Author's note: This chapter took the longest yet, but I'm rather proud of it.

To my Reveiwers: I'd like to thank you all, seeing as I would normally have crapped out on a story by now if you weren't here to give me feedback. So, Darkmachines, Devapaths, Sol21, Striker-Master of Hearts, and AcrlicCellist I hope all of you keep on reading and see the ending.


	8. Chapter 8

_Niero: I know a song that gets on everybody's nerves!_

** Aaro: I hope it's the damn disclaimer.**

_Niero: Fine. Aaroniero Arruruie owns nothing of Bleach._

Aaroniero watched as Ulric's release began, and all of his mutations disappeared. The thread like part of his mask that held his mouth closed dissolved. For the first time in years, Ulric took a breath through his real mouth, and when he expelled the air, it came out with little droplets of his acid. Ulric began to work his jaw as Aaroniero and Cirucci watched. They both remembered that his release powered his acid beyond belief.

"So good to have that part of my mask gone, you have no idea how annoying it is to not be able to move your jaw for years at a time." he said, glaring at the pair that had tried to kill him. He raised his hand and instead of a cero, a stream of acid was blasted where they had been seconds before.

As the floor melted away, Cirucci tried to hit him with Golondrina, but Ulric simply caught the Yo-yo like head and threw it back. Cirucci closed her eyes as Golondrina screamed back at her. She felt the disc begin to cut her neck, and heard Ulric laughing like a maniac, and a whisper of cloth as the edge cut her clothes a bit.

And then it was done. She felt strong arms wrapped around her, holding her off of the floor. Cirucci opened her eyes a bit and saw Aaroniero smiling smugly down at her. She stretched her face up and gave him a kiss.

"I so owe you one, don't I?" she asked him as he set her down. She glanced over to see Ulric fuming, and it looked like he was about to attack again. It would be a really good idea to move right about now.

"Yeah you do." he said as he as he used his sonido again to dodge another spray of acid from Ulric. Ulric roared in anger and tried again.

"You! How the hell did you get that fast?" Ulric roared as Aaroniero and Cirucci dodged again. He continued to spray, melting everything he could reach.

"You say that as if I should tell you." replied Aaroniero, putting down Cirucci and pulling Nejibana out of his sleeve. Ulric sprayed again, and Aaroniero matched it with a wave of water from Nejibana. Ulric seemed to pause before spraying again, and it was again matched by a wave of water.

"WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON YOU! RRRAAAAGH!" he screamed, stomping his feet like a spoiled child. This was exactly how Aaroniero remembered Ulric being when Cirucci would constsantly rebuke his feelings.

"Cirucci, go help Tosen, or wait for the three that are heading towards Las Noches. I'll take care of him, he's nowhere near as powerful as he wants us to think he is." said Aaroniero, pulling off the glove containing Glotonria, letting the tenticles wave in the air. Cirucci looked at him with wide eyes, she couldn't sense three others...wait! There they were, on the very edge of Las Noches.

"Alright, but I want him to actually be dead this time. Eat him if you have to, I'll be taking care of those three." she said, just before sonidoing to the entrance to Las Noches. Aaroniero turned his attention back to Ulric, who was still fuming.

"If you're done sacrificing yourself to save that whore, then I'll just kill you and go get her n-" he couldn't finish his sentance, seeing as most of Glotonria's tenticles were wrapped around his throat. Ulric tried to get his fingers under the tenticles, but that just made Aaroniero put more pressure on them. Something popped in his neck.

"You made two giant mistakes today, Ulric. The first was underestemating myself and Cirucci. The second was trying to kill her. I'm going to kill you for good this time." warned Aaroniero as the tenticles dropped Ulric to the floor, gasping for breath.

"Devour him whole, Glotonria." said Aaroniero, and purple mist began to form as a massive purple mass began to form underneath him, replacing his legs. The mass grew tenticles and mouths, and the tenticles that made up his arm dissolved. Ulric looked up in fear as Aaroniero looked down at him from his new vantage.

"How m-many h-have you eaten now?" asked Ulric, stuttering and visibly shaking. It made Aaroniero feel a little better to know Ulric was afraid of him. He decided to answer.

"To date, I have eaten about thirty-three thousand hollows, and one Espada." Ulric almost answered, but one of Aaroniero's tenticles smashed Ulric into a wall, making giant cracks appear. He screamed as he was pulled out of the wall in the tenticle's grip, then he tried to melt his way out with his acid. Aaroniero smirked as the acid slid right off of the tenticle.

"What the hell? There is no way you could resist my acid, not even with you released!" Ulric screamed, the tenticle's grip growing tighter. With his release, Ulric lost his power of mutation, and thus his ability mutate new flesh to replace the damage done to him.

"There is no way you can win now, Ulric. Your acid is useless." Aaroniero told Ulric as he was slowly crushed in the tenticle. Though Aaroniero became confused when Ulric began to laugh. Suddenly Ulric tore his way out of the tenticle, as the acid took at least a little effect.

"Now then, let's start this fight for real." he said as he landed on the ground, leaving Aaroniero grunting in pain.

"What did you just say?" asked Aaroniero as blood sprayed from the torn tenticle. Ulric simply looked up at him, laughing like a maniac. It galled Aaroniero to think Ulric still thought he could win.

"Oh my, do you not think you can win anymore? Do you still think you can steal what's mine? DO YOU?" screamed Ulric, ripping up and throwing a piece of the floor at Aaroniero's head. A tenticle came up and smashed the masonry, and a wave of water was sent Ulric's way by Nejibana.

Ulric stood his ground, and the water simply washed around him. But that had been a distraction from Aaroniero's true intent. To be totally honest, Aaroniero wasn't sure if he could do it, but he used Kaien's memories to help him along.

"Bakudo Number 64, six rods of light prison!" called Aaroniero as Ulric was caught in the kido. He used the bought time to begin the incantation for another kido, as Ulric thrashed and kicked, trying to free himself.

"I'm sick of this Ulric. I have no idea what came back here to do, but I'm ending it right here. If I ever see you again, and trust me, you'll be too dead to see anyone, it'll end the same way it did today." Ulric looked up at him with terror in his eyes, and he redoubled his escape attempts. But the six rods held fast, and Ulric was held in place by the kido.

"No! Not again!" wailed Ulric as he put out a giant spray of his acid. It never got close to Aaroniero.

"Hado Number 61, white lightning!" the hado cut through and disintigrated the spray of acid into harmless droplets. The kido took Ulric full in the chest, blowing out his heart and spine. He died almost instantly, but Aaroniero took no chances.

"Hado Number 33, wall of crashing blue fire." blue flames danced from Aaroniero's hands and lanced to Ulric's smoking corpse. The body began to burn up, and Aaroniero resealed his release, bringing back Glotonria's tenticles. As Aaroniero drew the glove back over them, he stepped from the hallway leaving Ulric burning behind him.

Jericho felt it. He paused in his attack for a second, earning him a deep cut on his arm as the Primera in front of him took advantage of the distraction. Jericho leapt back, firing his cero again, only for the primera to catch it in his free hand and throw it off to the side.

"Looks like Aaroniero got much stronger. Ulric should have been more than a match for him, especially when released." now Jericho was having second thoughts about his plan, with this more powerful Aaroniero free to run around as he pleased, his other associates were in danger of being overwhelmed.

And to make matters worse, Jericho was no longer sure that he could take this one. The primera was as strong, if not stronger, than he himself was. It would not be long, though, until Jericho could work up the power to release. Without the deadlight prism, it proved difficult to do.

"Are you done yet? I'm getting tired..." came the Primera's voice, and he was leaning on his sword, looking almost asleep on his feet. Jericho saw this for what it must have been, a trap. He chose instead to continue storing his energy until...there! He smiled at the primera as he held the mace out in front of him.

"Not even close! Now, Unleash Hell, Pistolero!" The primera's eyes widened as the room dimmed and Jericho's left eye began glowing red. Jericho roared in agony as he was forced to use his release without the deadlight prism. Blood flowed freely without the prism to absorb the massive outflow of power, thus stopping it from causing damage to himself.

Jericho's flesh greyed, and his teeth sharpened as he grew three feet. His fingers elongated, gaining two joints and talons on the ends. He tore off the shirt he wore, revealing a large patch of burnt skin in the form of a cross.

"Ah, so good to be let out again, Jericho. It's been so long since I've been in the fresh air." he said, bending double for a moment as a giant pair of taatered bat wings grew from his back. As he stood back up, he noticed the primera in front of him.

"Is this the one you let me out to kill, Jericho? This fool and a little girl? Shame, you could have taken them both. But I will not complain..." he said in a voice that reverberated in a deep drone that cracked the tiles on the floor.

"My name is Lazarus, little fool. I'm not the same as Jericho, I'm much less forgiving. But enough of this chatter." Lazarus used sonido, appearing behind Starrk, grabbing his collar and throwing him through a wall, following the bone crushing impact with a cero.

Lilinette screamed, and Lazarus looked over at her. He took a step towards her, a smile showing off the needle sharp teeth that bristled from his mouth.

Cirrucci waited across from the doors of Las Noches, the three were close, but two seemed to be flying over the dome, leaving the third to deal with her. Whoever this was wouldn't have a chance, she thought to herself as the third reached the doors.

There were six knocks, then the doors were blasted in by cero. Cirucci was smiling, she liked a fight as much as the next arrancar, almost as much as cuddling. Almost. But she had never taken it to the extreme that Grimmjow or Nnoitra took it to.

However, the smile faded as soon as she saw her opponent though. An almost completely intact mask, with lidless eyes and a cruelly barbed spear heralded the second man that should have been dead, a man who simply called himself Vladimir.

"Cirucci, so good to see you again. It's been awhile, about...since I died." he chuckled in his Russian accent, lifting the spear so that it was level with her knew better than to let that spear touch her, it was coated with a potent toxin that it excreated from the tip that made the pain of any wound double. The composition of the toxin was Vladimir's greatest secret, which was why he never let the spear out of his grasp.

"I had always wondered about you, my dear. What it would be like to touch you. What it would be like to hold you. What it would be like to peel your skin off, and stab the misrable, mewling thing left until it was little more than mush to be scraped off of my hands and forgotten. Would you like that, hmmm?" he purred, lowering the spear again, almost as if he expected her to deal with his game and respond to him.

"I always wondered why the dead don't stay dead around here, don't you?" she said back, lifting Golondrina over her head in a two handed grip, and sending the head screaming straight towards him with all of her strength. Vladimir leapt over it nimbly, and used sonido to appear behind her.

Cirucci barely had time to dodge. As it was, she had felt the barbs on the spear graze her skin as they tore through the fabric covering her back. Sonido had barely saved her from Vladimir, and she tried to buy even more time by bringing Golondrina back in an arc meant to kill Vladimir in a single blow by beheading, but there was a sudden shreik of tortured metal, filling the hall with a wall of white noise.

Cirucci glanced back, and what she saw shocked her. Vladimir had caught Golondrina on the very tip of his spear, the spinning head producing the tortured shriek that filled her ears. It was an impossible feat, more than impossible.

"My, my Cirucci. It looks like you've gotten yourself into a bit of a bind here, haven't you?" he gloated as he turned the spinning head away from him with a simple flick of his wrist. Golondrina crashed into the wall, smashing through it, only to be pulled back to the hilt by Cirucci.

"And as to your question about the dead, I guess not. All of us. Every single one died against that thing you called a master. All but yourself and Aaroniero. He wiped out the original, pure espada in one night." he said bitterly, taking a step towards her. Cirucci took a corresponding step back, the anger burning in Vladimir's lidless eyes enough to cow her.

"We died, and you lived on. But the master returned us. Soon enough you'll what it feels like to die and be reborn. Because you are going to die, but slowly, oh so slowly. The master never said I couldn't torture you." he said, breathing heavily in anticipation. One of Cirucci's memories surfaced unbidden in her mind, of the time she had come upon Vladimir in his room.

There had been three women, all human, naked and each chained to a seprate stone slab. Vladimir had been chuckling in the backround as he twirled a knife in his fingers. One had been insane by the time Cirucci had walked in, screaming even though there was not a mark on her. Vladimir had been whispering of the things he would do to them, before he noticed Cirucci standing in the door.

_"Have you come to join in my fun, Cirucci? These were plucked ripe from the human world, not two hours ago." he whisper in an attemt to be tempting. There was nothing temting about the offer, to say the least. One of the women, really just a girl, was weeping and begging Cirucci to help her. She hadn't met a good man, had yet to have children and oh god why was she just standing there?_

_ "No! I just-" she never got any futher as Vladimir took full advantage of the differance in their power, using sonido to get behind her and bash her over the head with his spear. She had no time to react as she was dazed, her thoughts sluggish. _

_ Cirucci felt herself dragged to the wall, and chained to it. She heard more of Vladimir's haunting laughter as he began twirling the knife again. Cirucci was sure he had said something over the screams of the insane woman and the weeping of the girl. He did not stay in front of her however, leaving and giving Cirucci a front row seat to see that all three women were in full veiw._

_ A cold hand gripped Cirucci's chest as she realized what Vladimir intended to do. Since he was not allowed to work his craft on her, the torturer made her an unwilling spectator to his horror show, which had begun momentarily._

_ The first cut was made on the calm woman, calm meaning not screaming or weeping uncontrollably. She screamed in agony that no human had a right to feel, for Vladimir had, in typical fashion, coated his knife in a concentrated version of his spear's venom, making the cut feel like a thousand._

_ He tutted the woman, and made another cut, this one long and curving. She wailed in torment, and Cirucci wished that the chain was long enough to allow her to cover her ears. Another cut was followed by another scream, and blood began flowing in earnest as he nicked a larger vein._

_ It took a full twenty minutes before he finished with that one. By the end, she had been covered with "drawings" of, and this was what disgusted Cirucci the most, Butterflies. Vladimir had whispered of her infatuation with the insects as he worked. He had even gone so far as to carve one into each of her eyeballs with a fine touch and alot of detail. Alot of detail._

_ He left his first victim to bleed out, and turned to the insane woman. This one tok only a few short minutes, in which all of her internal organs had been pulled out, with the exeption of her heart and lungs, so that she too would bleed out. It was all done in such a way that shock would not numb the pain or kill her. Cirucci couldn't hold it in anymore, and she vomited all over herself in disgust._

_ He was just reaching for the last victim, when his wrist was snagged by a man in white armor. Vladimir found himself in the grasp of Jorad, and the torturer began to quake with fear. The cero was not very forgiving of those who killed just for killing's sake._

_ "What have you done here, Vladimir? Why have you done this?" asked Jorad, throwing a glace at the vomit covered and by now weeping Cirucci. Vladimir attempted to answer, but Jorad's fist flicked in his face. Blood splatterd everywhere as his skull was split open by the lazy movement. But Vladimir was still alive, and he would most likely be back up and at his experiments again in a few days._

_ He stepped to Cirucci and used his cero to blast the chains that held her into ashes. He picked her up, holding her like one would hold a bride as he stepped to the remaining human woman. He laid Cirucci down next to her as he strode to the woman without organs. He simply laid a hand on her forehead, and her flesh began to knit together, and the lost organs were replaced. She moaned softly as she was stirred from her near death, and the damage to her mind was even healed by the merciful cero espada. _

_ The other woman received a simaler treatment, and Jorad removed the chains from all three using his cero. He flashed his even, white teeth in a benevolent smile, as he produced blankets out of thin air so the women could cover themselves._

The thought only served to distract her. The spear came with lightning speed, impaling her through the stomach. A scream would not have been enough to describe the sunburst of pure pain that accompanied it. Her silence was the only thing that Vladimir needed to know that she was in pain.

He let her drop to the ground as he drew a very special knife from his blood splattered robes.

"I hope you recognise this knife, my dear. Because I used it on those humans, so long ago now. I hope you're ready beca-" that was as far as he got before Santa Teresa smashed him into a wall, barely keeping hold of his weapon.

Nnoitra pulled his weapon out of the wall by the chain as Nel sonidoed over to Cirucci. Nel lifted Cirucci's top half just as she coughed up a mouthful of blood.

"Nnoitra, I'm leaving this one to you, I've got to get her to the nurses!" said Nel as she hoisted Cirucci in much the same way that Jorad had in her memory. However, the burst of sonido that Nel used to remove her from the battle site made her slip into unconsciousness.

The fool should have known that such a cheap trick wouldn't work on him, thought Tosen as he used Shunpo to catch Tybalt's hand before he could lay a finger on Loly. The sexta looked up at the blind man in shock, not that Tosen really saw it, but just like he had sensed him looking at Loly, he sensed the look Tybalt was giving him.

Tosen brought Suzumushi around in an arc that was blocked by the rapier. He couldn't swing again without leaving Loly open, so dragged Tybalt along in a flash-step across the hall.

The fight began once again, Tybalt throwing a sucker punch that Tosen caught, the blind captain anticipating the move. In return, Tosen barreled the sexta into a wall with his body weight, stabbbing him in the left side of his chest with Suzumushi. There was a slight delay until blood dribbled down from the corner of Tybalt's mouth.

"Looks like you got me, yeah. But there is one thing you should know about, yeah." Tosen looked down, and noticed that the rapier had found it's way into the same position Suzumushi was, lodged into his left chest.

Now it was Tosen's turn to have blood leak from his mouth, and Loly screamed behind him. Tosen had to stagger back, or Tybalt would have had a chance to twist the blade. Loly was beside him in an instant, asking if he was alright and holding a palm over the bleeding wound.

"I didn't want it to come down to this, but now I have to, yeah. The master says so." said Tybalt as he planted the rapier in the floor. He didn't move for a minute, as if he were waiting for instructions from an unseen puppeteer.

Finally, Tybalt's eyes moved. They were once again wild, and they bore none of the cunning he would display when he was calm. There was also a hint animalistic calm. But once again that was what Tosen was getting from listening carefully and using that inscrutable sixth sense.

"You've done it now, this tiger just lost it's chains, yeah. Now then..." he said in a quiet voice, throwing out waves of arrogence in his words. Tosen's brow creased as the change overcame Tybalt. He had seemed so carefree before, but now he had made a strange alteration in his words and actions. It was as if he was being controlled, now.

As if the personality of the man who called himself Tybalt was consumed or rejected. It disturbed Tosen greatly to think that there was a man or woman with that kind of control over someone, that their very personality changed on a whim. The last time he had met someone simaler, he had been cought in a state of hypnosis and forced to disregard justice, and everything he stood for.

"...Be Cunning, Principe de los Gatos." An animal roar filled the air as Tybalt bent double, a second pair of legs growing from his elongating spine. Tybalt's head grew longer, growing feline fangs while growing cat ears. His eyes became yellow with slitted pupils that gave off a preditory stare.

He grew short, light brown fur all over his body, while his arms and chest bulged with thick ropes and slabs of muscle, contrasting utterly with his lower half, which was lithe and looked exactly like a mountain lion from the human world, exept for the human like torso extending from where the head would normally be.

Tosen barely had time to shove Loly away from him before Tybalt fell upon him. He was swatted into the wall with crushing force, while Tybalt padded over to Loly on silent cat's feet.

He raised a fist, intending to crush Loly into the floor, until Tosen used shunpo to push her out of the way. She fell down, barely out of harm's way, and Tosen was stuck mere inches from the feline arrancar. He was once again smashed into the wall, but now Tybalt was holding him there with one massive paw.

"Cry, Suzumushi!" gasped Tosen, and the sound waves poured forth from Suzumushi's blade, making Tybalt drop him and cover his ears in agony. Appearantly, all of his senses were altered to a feline level. But the normal effect of Suzumushi's shikai only took effect on Loly, knocking her out cold. Tosen only had one choice left to him.

"Bankai, Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Korogi."

Mila Rose watched Harribel take Grey apart, still huddled close to Yammy. For every limb she cut off and every disembowlment, Grey regenerated. But Mila could tell that Tia could care less, she was far too enraged to care.

"Just what do you think you are doing, Tia? Think about Rudobon for a second, you know that I can still do what I said I would!" threatened Grey inbetween beheadings. Harribel didn't stop for a moment, continuing with her relentless attacks on the quinta.

"Not if I kill you, you son of a bitch!" was her response. Grey looked more annoyed with the dismemberments than anything, and it wasn't long before he could take advantage of her blind rage and push her away, snatching up his fallen blade from one of his severed arms.

Mila Rose was not following the conversation, instead staring at her mistress in shock. She had never seen Tia so enraged, it was like she was looking at Grimmjow in Harribel's body. It was, to say the least, a disturbing change.

"We'll see about that! Reap, Recolector de Almas!" the Quinta was wasting no time then. He knew he was fighting someone far above him, so he was going all out, using his release.

Grey's eyes began glowing violet, and his skin turned to ashes. His teeth turned black while his clothes melded together into a robe, and turned dark, and a sythe materialized out of thin air.

What faced Harribel now was a perfect match to the desciption of death. Even his voice had grown raspy and gutteral. The black teeth clicked together as he spoke.

"Now I am ready. You may continue." he stood still as Harribel took the invite and tried again. But every time she slashed him, he would seperate himself into the component bones of his body, letting the blade flow right through, even the robe seeming to take no damage.

And that was when the sythe came around, forcing Tia to block or be beheaded. The force behind the blow flinging her back into Yammy and Mila Rose. The ghoulish skeleton took a few steps forward as Harribel picked herself up off the ground. She had simply bounced off of Yammy.

"It has been long since this form has been seen, my friends. The last time was when the humans had their rediculous plague in their world, when I walked in this form among them. They were dying where ever I went, and those who could see me gave me names. The Grim Reaper seemed to be a favorite. It was my duty to see them to the other side, they said. How laughable." said Grey as he continued to close in on them with a slow step. Why would he need to go quickly, Mila thought, he could just go on forever while the rest of them would tire out or die eventually.

The black teeth clicked again, and Grey reared back, heaving the huge weapon back, and then throwing it at Tia with lightning speed. It stopped a hair's breath away from her, and Grey let out a great heaving laugh.

"I had you going didn't I? But really, It's time for me to kill you all and get on with this." he said, the sythe hovering back to his hands. Mila could have sworn Grey was moving faster now, encouraged by the expression of shock that Mila Rose herself must have been giving him.

Harribel tried again, but the sythe came around, and once again Tia blocked, getting herself thrown into a wall this time. Mila Rose wished that she had never come down this hall, then none of this would have happened.

Water began flowing around Tia as she spoke her own release command. Mila Rose knew it was forbidden for her to do so within Las Noches, as the power of her release could destroy the entire fortress, but she needed to, or it might as well be destroyed anyway.

Di Roy dragged Sun-Sun through the halls, trying to get to where Harribel was. The woman had released! This was getting very bad. Nearly all of the invaders of Las Noches had done so, and now some of the defenders were dying.

He barely heard the warning from Sun-Sun as a fist crashed into his face. An insane smile and electric blue hair was all he cought sight of before his head whipped around. Grimmjow looked at Di Roy with wide eyes and and that smile, as if he had something to say.

"Been having good dreams lately, Di Roy? Hope not, otherwise I did a bad job." Di Roy looked around at Grimmjow with smouldering eyes. How the hell was this guy back?

"Fuck off, Grimm-kitty. You're dead, and I am not having this conversation." bad choice in words. Di Roy knew how much Grimmjow hated that name, and he had deliberatly used it just to see if Grimmjow was real or not.

And he was, another punch to the face and a stream of foul language was sent his way, so Di Roy drew Rey de Tumbas. Grimmjow snorted and them laughed. After all, the last time Grimmjow had seen him, he was pretty weak.

Di Roy slashed at Grimmjow, who replicated a move he had done whenever one of his fraccions got rebellious, he caught the blade bare handed, Only it didn't work out so well this time. Grimmjow shouted as the blade gave him a deep cut on his palm. Grimmjow charged his cero and blasted Di Roy with it. Di Roy gave a few steps, but it didn't have the power to kill him or even hurt him that badly.

When Di Roy next caught sight of Grimmjow, he had drawn Pantera and was staring at him.

"What do you want Grimmjow, can't you just have been dead?" asked Di Roy, raising is sword and charging his cero in his eye. Grimmjow snorted again and raised Pantera.

"Don't think jus because you're getting _a piece of ass_ that you're man enough to ask me questions like that. I'll be dead if I ever fucking want to be dead." said Grimmjow, thowing a slash at Di Roy's head, which was ducked easily. However, Grimmjow would not be getting away with that insult.

Di Roy swung a fist at Grimmjow, connecting with his face, and sending him flying into the wall. He stared slack jawed at his own fist as Grimmjow got up, the insane smile replaced with a snarl of rage

"You are so fucking dead, Rinker."


	9. Chapter 9

**Aaro: Long time no see, good fans. I have come out of hibernation to give you ch. 9.**

_Niero: As always, I own nothing of bleach exept my numerous OCs. So remember, don't sue me._

Harribel used her sonido, moving behind Grey faster than many men could think. He barely had the time to bring the scythe around to defend himself. Grey swung back, using the sheer weight of his weapon to throw Harribel back a few steps. He then used the shaft to smash her in the stomach.

She stumbled, cursing, but slashed back at him, but he merely stepped out of the blade's arc. He laughed at her, until he was smashed in the chest by Harribel's war drop, blasting him out through a wall and into the sunlight under Las Noches' dome.

Mila Rose could honestly say that this fight was scarier than anything she had seen in her life. The thought of two released espada fighting, one with the power to destroy Las Noches with her very release, the other with no regard for what he destroyed, was a terrifying thing. She very well might not have a home after this.

She saw Grey and Harribel through the hole in the wall. At the moment they were holding their ground, sizing each other up. The calm before the storm, the final battle, almost like a murderer and a victim's wife…..holy shit.

She hadn't realized she had said the last part out loud. Yammy was now looking down at her, a question lurking in his eyes.

"Rudobon. Grey must have killed Rudobon. That's why she's so pissed off at him." Whispered Mila Rose, and Yammy snorted, as if he had no clue what relevance this could possibly have.

"So what if he did, why should she care? It's not like they were fucking." He looked squarely at Mila when she did not answer.

"_Were_ they?" he asked, a shocked look coming over his face. Harribel and Rudobon, in bed?

" They may or may not have been sleeping together, but I know one thing. She loved that man. She was willing to die for him." She said slowly, so Yammy wouldn't get lost. It was a habit to treat the giant like an idiot, so she was suprized when he appeared to take offence. She quickly apologized, and waited for him to pay attention once more.

"But if you ask me, now she just wants to kill Grey, or die to be with him."

Lazarus looked over at Lilinette, and the little girl screamed at his appearance. He looked like demon, with his sharp teeth and grey skin, and the burned on cross on his side and chest, not to mention the two tattered black wings he sported. Starrk wasn't dead, she was still alive, so why hadn't he come back yet? She really had no choice but to draw her sword, pulling it out of her horn. The scimitar like curved blade shook as she trembled in fear.

Lazarus' smile grew as he sensed her fear. He reached out a hand as he advanced, and the girl was too afraid to move. He wrapped his hand around her throat, and lifted her into the air. She tried to scream, but the air was blocked by his crushing grip. Her sword sparked off of his hierro three times as she swung wildly.

"Learn well Jericho, this how you should have been. Merciless and cruel. This girl could one day have grown to be stronger than us!" He seemed to listen for a moment as Lilinette's vision greyed out at the edges.

"Even now the fool pleads for me not to kill you, girl. And to think if the master allowed him access to that damned Deadlight prism he would be able to command me. I guess he'll just have to learn to live with it….." he said. Lilinette gasped once, and she was about to pass out, but she was dropped. Lazarus looked at Los Lobos, buried to the hilt in his sternum, Starrk glaring at him with daggers shooting from his eyes.

He looked down, and smashed Starrk's head to the side, tearing Los Lobos from its place. The wound spouted black blood at every move Lazarus made. Surely on anyone the wound would have been crippling if not fatal. But Lazarus seemed not to notice, he let it spray his vital fluids onto the floor.

Starrk lifted himself off of the floor, using Los Lobos as a support. This thing was a monster, he concluded in his head. Lazarus seemed to have no problems with the murder of children, so he must have little qualm with killing anything else.

Lazarus continued to stand above Lilinette's coughing form, looking down at her scornfully. He raised a hand, fingers curled as if he were holding something. Soon white energy began pooling there, and Lazarus' power began growing with it, sending shockwaves into Starrk's peqisa. Starrk expected Lazarus to aim the massive wave of energy at him, but he was shocked when he turned his hand to the little girl. He had a second to react. He sonidoed in front of her, and charged his cero to maximum power.

They released their respective cero at the same moment as the other, and the blue and white beams combined for a moment, then exploded, throwing Lazarus out one side of the tower and Starrk holding Lilinette out the other.

Starrk noticed Harribel fighting a macabre skeleton as he fell, and he also remembered feeling her release earlier. And then Lazarus flew into him at full speed, making him drop Lilinette as he was pile driven into the dirt. The impact made him cough up blood as his organs were put under stress from the sudden stop.

Lazarus now stood over him, the white cero once again gathering in his palm. Starrk used sonido and planted Los Lobos in the demon's back, then returning to catch Lilinette, only feet from the ground.

Lazarus roared in pain, and the cero in his hand exploded as he over charged it with power. He reached back and tore the blade out of his back, dropping it to the dust at his feet. The demon looked up at him with raw hate in his eyes.

Di Roy watched as Pantera fell towards his head in one of the wild swings that Grimmjow was known for. Looking back, one of these would have been faster than he could think, but now, it proved all too simple to knock the blade aside and kick Grimmjow into a wall.

The blue haired espada made a nice crater in the wall, which he was then forced to climb out of, snarling curses and charging a cero. The red cero washed around Di Roy, doing no damage.

Pantera flashed again, and Rey de Tumbas was up in an instant, knocking the blade away and giving Grimmjow a cut across the face. In turn, Grimmjow slammed a fist into Di Roy's gut. He was kneed in the face as he doubled over, then thrown into a wall. He looked up to see Grimmjow about to stab him.

Purple cero broke over the sexta, knocking him back a few steps, and Anoconda skated off of his hierro in a flash of sparks. Grimmjow backhanded Sun-sun, knocking her on the ground.

"Looks like yer bitch has to do all yer fighting for ya." He commented off handedly as he raised his blade to kill her.

"Too bad, she was a pretty one too." He said as Pantera came down. Di Roy leapt, knocking down the espada and barely saving Sun-sun.

"Keep away from her!" growled Di Roy, rolling on top of Grimmjow and beating him in the face with his fist. Suddenly he was lifted off of Grimmjow by a kick to the stomach, landing nine feet down the hall gasping for breath.

Sun-sun watched Di Roy get kicked across the hall by Grimmjow. He was laying where he fell, gasping for breath while the espada got to his feet. The reitsu was flowing off of him now.

Her face still hurt from the backhand he had given her. She was sure it would be black and blue by tomorrow. But now she needed to buy time for Di Roy to get up.

"Strangle to death, Anoconda!" she called out her release command just as Grimmjow started towards Di Roy. She used her cero again, this time blasting him into the wall. She glanced over to Di Roy, and seeing him getting up, she let her guard down and smiled.

"YOU BITCH! GRIND, PANTERA!" she looked back, and she saw Grimmjow's half paw foot crash into her eye. She crashed into the floor, her eye swelling instantly.

Now he stood over her, glowing blue streaks forming over his claws, reaching up over his head. He raised a hand, intending to finish her with his most powerful attack. And all she could do was watch.

Time slowed for Di Roy as Grimmjow brought his hand down. He tried to use sonido, but he was stopped by something. There was a voice in his head telling him to stop.

_Di Roy. I am Rey de Tumbas. Do you want to save her?_

Di Roy thought that was a dumb first ever question for his sword to ask him. He opened his thoughts, and the sword's spirit nodded, even though Di Roy couldn't see him.

_Good. Then relax and let me do the work._

Time sped up again, and Di Roy could still not control his body, but it still moved. One of his bandages had taken hold of his blade, whipping it around and cutting off Grimmjow's ear. He howled, releasing the glowing slashes into the ceiling.

Grimmjow looked around, ready to launch the other claw's blast at Di Roy, but Di Roy had used Sonido, appearing over him, with the bandages that wrapped around his arms grown out as far as they would go, one still holding the blade, which had changed. Now it was at the end of a wooden shaft, the blade fanning out as if it were an ax head, but it was still clearly a sword, the blade too thin and too long to be an ax.

A number of the bandages dropped, distracting Grimmjow while three came down, including the one with Rey de Tumbas. The three passed the blade between them, each one making a cut faster than the eye could see, but still Grimmjow kept up with them, blocking with all the speed he had. Suddenly the blade jerked up, and all of the other bandages that had been distractions, all fifteen of them, loosed a fully charged cero.

Di Roy floated to the ground as the smoke billowed. He felt his body return to his control. He was instantly beside Sun-sun, dropping the new blade and pulling her close, dragging the shrinking bandages with him.

_You're welcome. Remember to use me like that, and you won't be called a weakling anymore._ The voice faded from his head before he had really even thought to thank it.

Grimmjow coughed behind him. He turned to see the smoke had almost cleared, and Grimmjow was laying on the floor, missing most of his limbs and with his guts laying all over the floor.

Di Roy stood, taking a pale faced Sun-sun with him. Grimmjow was twitching the one arm he had left as his release resealed itself. Di Roy knew that he didn't have much time left. He stepped over to the dying espada.

"Di Roy….listen to me….you fucked me up good. Now go save….that pansy ass woman. Ul…qui…orra…..Ku…sa….i….." then he was dead. He began to turn to ashes.

Eerie silence reigned over the camp. Veronica had ceased her suicide attempts for the moment, and Arkhan sat near the fire.

"Ulric and Grimmjow. Jericho has let that animal Lazarus work his mind for too long. They need to pull out, now." Said Arkhan, coughing intermitantly. Veronica nodded, still laying in the sand.

Arkhan felt for the master's link with him. It was a small charm in the shape of skull. He told the master of Jehicho's failure.

_**Perfect. They have done well. I have all the information I need for a final strike on them now.**_

Tosen heard as Tybalt hissed in distaste, as Suzumushi robbed him of his senses. Of course Tosen could not see it, but his bankai was enveloping the hall in a sea of pure blackness. Tosen used shunpo to close, hacking a red line out of Tybalt's chest.

He dodged the swipe that the feline arrancar threw his way, and used shunpo again to appear above his opponent, making an identical cut on Tybalt's back. This time, Tybalt twisted his head and unleashed a cero. Though it only touched empty air, for Tosen was now weaving about with shunpo, leaving a crippling amount of cuts in his wake.

The sexta roared in agony, unable to keep up with Tosen when he couldn't see, hear, or even smell. All he could do was swipe around him in a vain attempt to catch his tormenter with one.

At this rate, Tybalt knew he was doomed. Soon enough, one of these slashes would find one of his internal organs or his neck, and he couldn't help but wonder if he had followed Jericho one step too far.

_**No, you have not. But now is time to flee. **_The master's voice boomed through the sexta's skull. All of a sudden, the blackness across his eyes was lifted as Tosen's Bankai was crushed by an irresistible force, sealing the dark man's zanpakuto.

Tybalt was no fool, he used the time the master bought him without delay, using sonido to escape, his form leaking blood all over.

Tosen's head pounded as he managed to lift Suzumushi up to sheath it. He had never had his Bankai sealed on him like that before, and was sure no one ever had.

He managed to drag himself a step, and was seized by vertigo, making the hall spin and nearly making him retch. But he managed to avoid that, stumbling over to Loly, who was still unconscious from his shikai. Her breathing was even and calm, and he was glad to know she had not been harmed.

God knew she had been harmed enough.

No longer able to stand, he kneeled next to her, falling onto his side soon after. The fight was done for now, he sensed, Tybalt was gone. It was only a few seconds before he sunk into sleep.

Aaroniero rushed through the halls, whipping around corners with his sonido, passing through sunlight and losing Kaien's form. But he didn't care, all he knew was one thing.

Cirucci was hurt, badly. He felt it as soon as it happened, the dramatic drop in her riatsu enough to tell him what must have happened. She was lucky that Nelliel had been near to spirit her away from her foe while Nnoitra fought him.

Aaroniero assumed Nel had brought Cirucci straight to the nurses, so he made his path as short as possible. He worried, mostly because of the fact he had never felt someone's power fall so fast. Correction, he saw it all the time, just not on people who mattered to him.

It was only possible to lose so much riatsu when one was near death. The thought only made Aaroniero go faster, barreling past a pair of serving arrancarsand knocking them to the floor.

The wind of his passage shifted Nel's hair, blowing it in an unruly tangle of sea green, making her startle. But he was already inside the healer's room, breaking down the doors in his hurry to see her.

A press of nurses tried to hold him back, but he simply plowed on through both their bodies and their insistence that Cirucci was unready to see him. He soon came upon the bed she was in, and a pile of red cloths that must have once been Cirucci's clothes. He stepped closer to the bed.

And he saw Cirucci, her face drawn and her eyes sunken, looking altogether too pale. He kneeled next to the bed, and she opened her eyes at the feel of his familiar spiritual pressure. She smiled at him, a gesture he could not mimic with his nearly immobile faces.

Cirucci reached a hand out from the covers, unsteady and shaking, reaching for him, to tell him she was _alright_ and _would be back on her feet soon enough_. He took her hand, holding it tightly as she said one word, almost a whisper. One _name_.

"Vladimir…." Was all she could say before she closed her eyes again. She was sleeping, he could tell instantly, by her quiet breathing and the slight smile she held on to.

Aaroniero stood up, disturbed now more than ever. Ulric's return could be passed off as carelessness on Aizen's part, but Vladimir was another matter. He couldn't regenerate. Rage coursed its way through Aaroniero as he thought about it. This was not the first time he had bothered her.

He stepped out into the hall, past Nel, who gave him a puzzled look as he drifted by. She reached out a hand to touch his shoulder, but he disappeared in a flash of sonido before she reached him. Nel had the distinct feeling that Aaroniero had an idea of who it was who had stabbed Cirucci.

And she would _not _want to be him when Aaroniero found him.

Nnoitra hauled back Santa Teresa from the wall, dragging it by the chain until he could reach the shaft of the weapon. His smile grew as he felt Nel take the purple bitch away to the nurses.

_Guess I get to smoke this fucker by maself! _He thought as Vladimir climbed out of the wreckage of the wall, holding both his spear and a dagger in his fists. They faced each other down for a second, then moved at the same time, the spear glancing harmlessly over Nnoitra's hierro, while Santa Teresa was turned aside by the dagger.

Nnoitra twisted and brought Santa Teresa around in a brutal arc, intending to slice the other arrancar in two. The cut met air as Vladimir leapt into the air, bringing his spear in Nnoitra's face. Nnoitra reached up and grabbed the weapon, not being cut at all by the sharp point. Nnoitra lifted his weapon and slammed the edge of the inside curve into Vladimir's chest, but it stopped dead.

"What do you say we stop testing each other?" asked Vladimir, staring out with his lidless eyes while Nnoitra just smiled.

"More like stop pansy assing it!" He yelled, putting more force into his weapon and throwing Vladimir down the hall while Nnoitra's tongue snaked out. His golden cero formed at the tip, and fired into the septima, throwing him into the wall. He slid to the ground, then picked himself up, smoking as his clothes smouldered.

"I think I'm done playing here, Be…." That was as far as he got before Aaroniero slammed Brujeria into his back, then grabbed him around the neck with Glotoneria, slamming him into a wall repeatedly, before the center tentacle seemed to expand, a dark blue cero forming within it.

"Why, it's good to see you as well, Aaroniero."

Orihime sat next to Szayel after returning from healing Cirucci. She was tired, it was taking more and more effort to do anything these days. Pregnancy just seemed to suck the energy out of you.

She was leaning on his shoulder while he stroked her hair. She was about to fall asleep, her eyes just closing when someone knocked at her door.

"I wonder who that could be?" she mumbled as Szayel layed her head gently on the arm of the couch they were sharing to get up and answer the door. She heard the door creak open and heard Szayel say a stream of curses as he was hurled back into the room. Normally, she would have seen if he was alright before dealing with the newcomer. But she was frozen in place, her face white as a sheet.

"Greetings, onna. I trust that you've kept my child safe?"

A/N: Sorry this one took so long, school started, can you tell? Also, the accompaniment to We Are Espada will be coming along with this chapter, and it deals with the Gotei 13, maybe even meet some old friends along the way? Anyway it will be under Soi Fon And Mayuri Kurotsuchi, Romance, M. I do not know the name as of writing this author's note, so I give you directions.


	10. Chapter 10

**Aaro: This Power! It can't be! It's it's….**

_Niero: The disclaimer!_

Cirucci: I was expecting an OVER 9000 referance, but whatever. Aaroniero Arruruie owns nothing of Bleach.

"**Don't be cute with me, Vladimir. I don't know how you and Ulric survived, but I'm going to kill you for what you've done!" **Aaroniero shouted, shaking the man held in his tentacles like a rag doll before releasing the cero directly into his back, propelling the torturer down the hallway.

"Ya know this dickweed, night light?" asked Nnoitra, pointing Santa Teresa towards the fallen espada. Aaroniero glanced over at the quinta as Vladimir got to his feet.

"_He was the septima in the days of the original espada._** The two of us together should be enough to subdue him." **Said Aaroniero, brandishing Brujeria in Vladimir's direction. Nnoitra smiled, preparing to win the fight without the help of the noveno.

"You forget, Aaroniero that positions within the espada were not given out based purely on power as they are now. They were given based on what role you played within it." interjected Vladimir as he dusted himself off. He twirled the spear between his fingers as he took a few steps forward.

"The fuck ya talkin about bitch? We were always picked for power!" Vladimir smiled as Nnoitra's ignorance of the espada's past became apparent.

"How little you know, then. We came before you, the originals, and the protectors of hueco mundo. And trust me when I say that you are nothing compared to us." He said in a bored tone, watching Nnoitra become angrier and angrier with every word spoken.

"You fools who came after us are pathetic. The master watched you from your inception, you know. He was considering taking you over while he figured out the secrets of a particular member of the new espada." Vladimir droned in a bored tone, tapping the shaft of his spear on his shoulder.

"Szyelapporo Granz, the currant octava, bragged once while within the master's hearing that, using a technique called Gabriel, he could revive himself without end. Needless to say the master was intrigued, so he watched Szayelapporo, hoping for some sort of clue, or even a demonstration. And he did, eventually, as a result being able to flawlessly recreate it." Aaroniero had no idea where the torturer could possibly be going with his rant, except maybe just to annoy both him and the quinta.

"That of course, set the master to thinking. If he could revive himself, could he not alter the ability to include the revival of others, say his fallen and dearly missed comrades?" hissed Vladimir, the sick look in his eyes flaring up. He stopped tapping his spear and leveled it at Aaroniero.

"Indeed he could, and did. Ulric was first, then Grey and Arkhan. I came with Jericho and Tybalt, and Veronica shortly after. Only Thorn and Thera remain, our beloved brother and sister primeras." he drawled, and with a burst of sonido, planted a foot squarely in, and through, Aaroniero's tank. The strange red fluid that filled the container spilled everywhere, and glass flew in all directions as he toppled like a felled tree. Aaroniero's heads rolled on the floor.

Nnoitra tried to swing Santa Teresa at Vladimir, but the septima simply sonidoed away, leaving Nnoitra swinging at air. The whisper of robes was the only warning he had as he swung again, this time behind him, again meeting air.

"Stop runnin' away ya jackass!" shouted Nnoitra, sliding out his long tongue and charging his cero, the whole time searching with his one eye for his opponent. The hall remained deathly silent; Nnoitra was holding his breath while he waited.

There was no further attack. It appeared as if Vladimir had simply used sonido and escaped, leaving his job half finished. Nnoitra released the energy of his cero into a wall in frustration.

Behind him, a woman screamed, making Nnoitra jump at least nine feet in the air. A flash of white and purple whipped past him like greased lighting running from the devil himself. The scream faded away, and the soft sound of a woman in tears reached him.

It was Cirucci, healed and clutching one of Aaroniero's heads to her chest. Her zanpakuto lay forgotten down the hall.

"The fuck?" he grumbled as he watched. The bastard was dead, no reason to blubber about it. Nnoitra stalked up behind Cirucci, intending to give her a firm kick in the ass for being so weak.

Loly stirred awake first, her ears ringing and her body reminding her of her repeated abuse. She rolled over, and came face to face with Tosen, obviously asleep and right there in her face. She quickly sat up and scooted backwards from him.

Her senses told her to be on high alert; there was a man in her personal space without her express permission. She tried reaching for her sword, only to find it was not on her person. Her eyes fell on Suzumushi, sheathed at Tosen's side. Loly reached a hand for the weapon, intending to shove it through his neck.

She stopped herself just as her fingers brushed the grip. This was _Kaname_, not Aizen. The man who cleaned her up after every attack, or dragged her to the nurses because he couldn't do so without them.

She fell back, letting the arm fall to the ground, feeling tears forming in her eyes. Damn it, this wasn't the time to cry! Loly forced herself to her feet, intending to simply walk off with no real idea of where she would go.

But when she stood, she could see Findor, hanging from the doorframe like some freakish ornament. Loly couldn't help herself; she stood staring at the corpse. Her eyes were drawn to it.

"It is a frightening thing, seeing Jericho at work for the first time." said a voice behind her. Normally she would have been startled out of her wits, but this voice was calming. It almost required a response.

"Yes." was all she could say. Loly felt that she should have run from the voice, but she was unsure as to how far she would get.

"But you have seen much worse." his voice, because it was definitely a he, deep and smooth, telling of a power that was near omnipotent, but not threatening. Loly turned slowly, the tears returning to her eyes, to regard this newcomer.

And what she saw shocked her. He stood well over six feet, and was covered from the neck down in armor of the purest white. He was an arrancar, evidenced by the jagged mask remnants that jutted up from his shoulder blades. His face was noble, and his green eyes were sharp, seeming to gaze benevolently into her soul and obliterate any doubt or worry she had. To add even further to this, he literally _shined _with an inner light, which cast dancing shadows wherever Loly looked.

"You have seen much worse, Loly. It pains me to see your face so downcast as of late. Unburden yourself, tell me your troubles, that I may render them so that they are but fleeting memories." he said, smiling with perfectly white and even teeth.

Loly could not return the smile; she felt she would never smile again. Nevertheless, she pointed a finger at Findor, who was now lighted by the strange arrancar's glow.

"Ah young Carius. Jericho was overzealous in this matter, to say the least. Let me handle this, Loly." he said as he drew his blade, a massive two handed affair from what seemed like thin air.

Unsure as to how he could possibly make things right when Findor was dead, Loly simply watched as he hacked the corpse down, then kneeled next to the body. There was a flash as the arrancar's glow intensified, then a wracking series of coughs.

The figure took a step back, revealing Findor on the ground, sleeping. Loly stood gaping at him, disbelieving. He had been dead, **dead**. No one was able to bring back the dead.

"I know what you must be thinking. But he is alive, and I implore you to leave this place with me." He said, staring pointedly at her with his green eyes.

"Why would I do that? Just because you can bring people back from the dead doesn't mean I'm going to just follow you like a puppy." She met his gaze with her own.

"A better question would be why not. You may not realize it, but the espada are falling apart at the seams. Without Aizen to lead you, it will not be long until they are at each other's throats." He continued to stare. Loly was still reeling from the Findor's revival, and this news was no less shocking. Everything appeared to be fine; no one was trying to kill each other. Even Nnoitra and Nel were screwing like rabbits.

"Believe me; you will one day thank me for this." He said raising a single hand slowly towards her.

Having someone care about her wellbeing enough to try to take her away from danger was a bit of a novelty to Loly. She was flattered, but she still didn't want to leave Las Noches.

He gave her no choice however. He simply grabbed her by the wrist and sonidoed away.

Harribel blocked Grey's weapon once again, the tip of the massive scythe nearly pressing into her face. She could sense Starrk and his opponent in their pause, and Lilinette as she came around.

None of it mattered, nothing but the death of the monster that killed Rudobon.

But the task seemed insurmountable. With every stroke either blocked or dodged with the strange jangle of separating bones, Harribel began to lose hope.

"Good, good. Lose yourself. I can hear everything going through your head. Your hate for me is like a portal, I see every move you make before you make it. I-" A foot crashed into Grey's skull, making him crash into the sand far below.

"Do not presume yourself…..above the master's plans, Grey." said an entirely too thin specter of a man wearing rusted armor.

"Look, you sick wretch, I am winning! Just let me finish here, and then I will leave!" yelled Grey from the ground. The corpse's eyes flashed, and Grey was crushed to the ground as Harribel watched.

"What are you?" she asked him. He spared her a glance.

"I am the Tres Espada, Arkhan Typhoid. I guide those who die of sickness into the other side. I am countered by Aaroniero Arrururie, the shepard of evolution." Harribel was confused by the statement. She was the tres espada, and what did Aaroniero have to do with anything?

Her questions were unanswered as Arkhan and Grey vanished.

Lazarus panted, his black blood welling out of the horrendous wounds that Starrk had given him. How the demon was still standing was an enigma to Starrk.

Lazarus' wings flared out behind him, the tattered edges letting dappeled sunlight through the many holes and tears. They flapped twice, as if attempting to get airborne, but Starrk knew he must be spent. The demon stared him down, smiling like a maniac.

With a burst of sonido, Lazarus' taloned hands were centimeters from Starrk's face.

"Cero." the blast shot Lazarus into the sky, where Harribel was just standing there looking blankly at empty space. It took only seconds for the demon to right himelf, and attempt his own cero.

The white beam crashed into empty ground, kicking up a vast cloud of sand where the primera used to be. Starrk reappeared above the demon, and used his cero to blast him back down into the cloud. He roared as he fell, in both rage and pain.

Starrk took the opportunity to retrieve Los Lobos from where Lazarus dropped it, turning to once again face his opponent.

Only to be met with a fist. Lazarus grabbed Starrk's shirt and slammed him into the dust, charging a cero. He released his energy, pile driving Starrk into the ground, only for Lazarus to pick him up again.

"I'm not done with you." he growled, charging another cero.

"But you are, Lazarus." said a new voice. Lazarus looked over his shoulder to see a woman with red hair draped over his shoulders.

"Veronica, what are you doing here?" he asked, almost looking like he was going to tear the woman limb from limb.

"Just here to keep you from dying. And to bring you back home." she said. Every word seemed tinged with unbearable sadness to Starrk.

Lazarus looked slowly over to Starrk. He pointed a single talon at him, then relsealed himself.

"We are not done with you." They both disappeared with those words. Starrk began to trudge away, towards Lilinette.

Di roy held Sun-sun close as he finally got to where Harribel had been fighting. There was a massive pile of entrails, and shorn off limbs that almost looked like they came from Tesra's release.

Sun-sun gasped as she cought sight of Mila Rose, bloody and standing altogether too close to the Diaz. She broke free of his grip to rush over to her sister. Di roy went at an altogether slower pace. The fight with the revived Grimmjow was bothering him. Where had he come from?

There was a sudden drop in Harribel's reitsu as she resealed her release, causing him to look up from where his eyes had become planted at his feet. The Tres floated in from outsideusing a massive hole in the wall. Tiberon dangled loosely from her fingers.

Tears once again were streaming down her face, but these were tears of rage.

"I let him get away. I let him get away!" was al she was saying.

Yammy and Di Roy appeared to be the only ones contemplating what had just gone on. They looked at each other for a second as they reached the same conclusion.

"Call a meeting." said Di Roy, voicing the thought. Yammy nodded.

Ulquiorra stared at Orihime with the complete lack of emotion she was used to.

"You're alive? Ulquiorra, how?"she gasped, attemting to stand up, but too weak in the knees to do so now.

"A simple show of courtesy by Jorad." was his answer, as Szayelapporo picked himself off of the ground.

"Why did you have to hurt Szayel? He was only trying to help…." she said, trying stay awake as Ulquiorra stalked into the room. Why did she have to be so tired now?

"He was close to you." was all he said.

"So what? Why did you even bother to come back?" growled Szayel.

"Because my child is here." he replied, sitting down on the couch next to Orihime.

"Fine. I guess I'll just leave you two then." said Szayel as he stormed out of the room.

"Good, because I will be staying."

"Wait, Szayel!"

Ulquiorra settled back, and turned his head towards Orihime.

"I am opposing his will, you know. The next time he and I meet, Jorad will try to kill me." said Ulquiorra, grabbing onto her hand.

"Why?"

"Because it is the way of the world. Beyond that, wait until the morning. Defying Jorad has taken most of my power."

"So, Ulquiorra defys the master." said an insane voice. A shadowed figure lifted his massive blade onto his shoulder.

"Well, I will not. I will do what he was commanded to. That girl will die, child or no child."

"Because, whether Ichigo likes it or not, I am the king now."

A/N Greetings from your writer. I hibernated again, but here's ch. 10. I wish this would come faster, but it's not.

I would like to thank my reviewers again, and welcome Dr. Solotov to the ranks.


	11. Chapter 11 part 1 of 9

**Aaro: DA TRUTH HAS SET ME FREE!**

Niero: And so has the disclaimer!

**Aaro: LITTLE JIMMY SAYS, AARONIERO ARRURUIE OWNS NOTHING OF BLEACH.**

Loly awoke, lazily stretching out on a luxurious bed that was heavily scented with lilac. The sheets were twisted around her form, and she was laying on her stomach with her eyes pointed at an exquisitely carved headboard. She was well rested, an oddity for her, for these days she was plagued with awfully vivid nightmares that even sometimes reached into her waking hours. But she had had none of those last night, her slumber deep and unninteruptted. She felt a deep inner peace, like she had before Aizen.

And just as soon as that peace came, it blew away like the wind.

She bolted upright, the sudden movement shattering the delicate silence she had been sleeping in with the sounds of her fear. Loly couldn't remember how she had gotten to this bed, or where she was. She had no clue about anything, and it made her breathing heavy and her brow erupt in sweat. She didn't know what to do, or even if she was allowed to move from this spot.

"She awakes." said a voice in her head. She groaned, thinking that she was finally going mad. Loly had never heard voices in her head, and she was finding the experiance to be highly unpleasant.

**I can see that.**__There was a slight grumble that Loly couldn't disern, and then the voice continued.

**We are frightening her. She can hear us, but cannot see us. We blend in too well here.**

Every second that passed with the alien voices in her mind made Loly feel strange, like water was flowing over her mind at different temperatures depending on which voice was speaking. One was plesant and mildly warm, like bathwater that had been sitting for too long. However, the other was like having water from the arctic regions of the human world poured over her. Her arms broke out in gooseflesh every time that voice spoke.

"Supress your riatsu, it will make us visable to her."

**No need to point out the obvious.**

Shadows began to detatch themselves from the darkness clinging to the corners of the room, forming two figures in opposite corners of the room. One wore a black cloak that covered its tall frame from head to toe, it was a disquieting form to look at, seeing as it never once moved, not even a twitch. It looked like a statue carved out of obsidian, made to inspire dread in all of those who looked upon it.

The other, by contrast almost made Loly smile. It was colorful, where the first was dark, and did not wear a cloak. It was leaning back in a chair in the corner, balancing on two chair legs with her feet propped up on expensive looking end table, showing off the tight leggings it wore, one leg adorned with a pattern of alternating violet and scarlet diamonds, the other with black pinstripes on a white background. This figure only got stranger as Loly finished her examination. This one was obviously female, her hourglass form and her chest swellings making that plain. The clothes on her upper body were no less strange than her pants, on which the diamonds and pinstripes were repeated, but now the diamonds were black and white and the stripes were red and purple. She had a demure face with a smile on her painted blue lips, bizarre dandilion yellow eyes, and hair that was a combination of two different colors, bright green and hot pink, and oddly niether side appeared to be dyed. There was a bone beret sticking out of the green side of her hair.

**She thinks you strange, sister.**

"And she thinks you scary, brother."

There was a mental equivalent of a grunt, and the woman's smile grew wider. Loly could tell that the warmer mental voice belonged to the woman, who started to bounce her legs on the table, making it shudder under the impacts. Loly realised that these two were telepaths.

"She doesn't talk much. She reminds me of you. Or maybe she's just awed by my charms!" squealed the woman, waving her colorfully gloved hands in the air, giving her an air of over-exiteability. The odd display made Loly giggle.

"See? I told you she liked me." said the woman, beaming at the stone like form of her brother in the opposite corner.

**As usual, you jump to conclutions. She was unconscious when you started probing her mind, and when you made that claim. I had no reason to think that she should like either of us.**

"And I was going to have to be the optimist between us once again. I, at least, knew that my dazzling good looks and stunning personality would win her over immediately." the woman said out loud, the first spoken words to have passed between the pair over the whole conversation. The noise startled Loly enough that she jumped.

The woman looked back at her, seeming to remember that Loly was there. The smile had not once faded from her face, and it seemed like it never had and never would. Her happiness was something Loly could not understand, even before Aizen had brutalized her. This woman must have boundless energy if she kept this up all the time.

"Oh stop, you'll make me blush!" laughed the woman. Loly remembered that the woman could hear her thoughts.

"Is it possible for you to not be in my head?" asked Loly, smiling despite the serious nature of the question. The woman thought for a second.

"I suppose I could, but it's not as fun this way." she said. "I guess it's a bad habit anyway. Since this guy won't talk out loud, it became second nature to skim over people's thoughts to know what they wanted. If I didn't do that with him, he will just stand there for hours, because he won't talk to you unless acknolage him by touching his thoughts!" she said, waggling her finger at her brother.

"But that's boring talk. I'm Thera, and this is my brother Thorn. He's kind of the boring guy in the pair. I, however, am stunning and I daresay sexy, and do all kinds of interesting stuff. I play practical jokes on Tybalt, you know, the 'meow I'm a kittah' one? Of course you do, but anyway, I put catnip in Grimmjow's shampoo once and they got into a cat fight! I mean, by the end of it they were both high as fuck, and purring! Like two housecats! Tybalt even tried to curl up on Ulric! It was hilarious!"

"That will be quite enough, Thera. You're going to wear out poor Loly's ears." said a new voice as the door opened. Loly's eyes were met with a soft light and white armor. It was the man who had taken her here.

"But Jorad! I haven't even told her how I got Veronica to think she was pregnant! Or how Ulquiorra ended up hanging by his foot from the ceiling of the theater! Or Jericho's cottage cheese disaster! Or if you want to go a long way back, how I put my atomic-uber-mega-bitchin hot sauce under Grey's tongue when he was sleeping? He may be able to regenerate, but his mouth was still so swollen that he couldn't talk for a week!" The whole while that Thera was expounding her no-doubt glorious exploits as a prankster, the one called Jorad seemed to be thinking. He then seemed to remember something, and waited until Thera finally paused for a nearly non-existant breath.

"Thera?" he asked gently. She looked at him like she was annoyed with being interrupted.

"STFU and GTFO." There was dead silance in the room. Loly had no idea what had just been said, or why Thera had such a stunned expression on her face, at least as stunned as one could look with a smile on their face.

"STFUing and GTFOing at once sir!" and then she was gone. Out the door like pink-green-red-purple-black-white lightning. Thorn followed her, the first time Loly had seen the man move.

"Such a silly girl." said Jorad, sitting in the chair that Thera had just vacated. Loly's eyes narrowed at him, remembering her kidnapping.

"Now, you must be wondering why I brought you here, or you would not be looking at me with such a face." he said.

"No. You told me, but I don't buy it. The Espada are fine. If Nel and Nnoitra can get it on, and Yammy can work without Ulquiorra around, then something must be going right." she said, and then patiently waited for Jorad's response.

"That's fine. All you need to know is that I have you here for a reason." he responded with a smile, standing up.

"I'll send Thera back in. She'll take you anywhere you want to go, so don't be afraid to ask her." and then he left, as sudden as he had come. And Thera came dancing back in moments later smiling and colorful, and without Thorn this time. She retook her seat, and began regaling Loly with the details of the apearantly large building that she was staying in. Loly didn't remember a word of it because she was lost in thought as to what the reason for her being here was.

Di Roy stood next to Sun-Sun and Harribel in the meeting room, while everyone around him yelled at one another or attempted to gain the attention of everyone at the gathering. Harribel was sitting at the meeting room table with Appaci and Mila Rose attempting to comfort her, even though Tia appeared to have collected herself for the moment. That was good news, at least. The espada would need her if attacks like this would continue.

Events contnued in this fashion for about an hour, until Starrk and Tosen walked in. That was when everyone quieted. Even Nnoitra, who had been about a second from strangling Szayelapporo, looked up expectantly at the primera.

Starrk, who seemed for once serious, walked to the head of the table, and took the seat that had been reserved for him. He propped his feet up, and glared around the table. With that done, Starrk began.

"As all of you know by now, Las Noches was attacked today." he began, "And that we have taken casualties. Tesra Lindocruz is dead, and Findor Carias has been found unconcious but alive. Beyond that we have nine serving arrancar dead. Now, I want you, one at a time, clockwise around the table, to give any information you have about the attackers." It was Tosen who started by giving a descripting of his assailant.

"He referred to himself as the sexta espada." were his final words. Next was Mila Rose, who gave a description of a man she called Grey, and how he had killed Tesra. Just when it was Harribel's turn to speak, the doors to the meeting room opened once again, revealing the only two that were not at the meeting, Aaroniero and Cirucci, the latter of which carried what appeared to be a fish tank with Aaroniero's heads in it.

"**Believe that I can provide all that you need to know and more.**" said one head, while everyone quieted once again.

"Then by all means, go ahead. But why are you in a fish tank?" said Starrk.

"Because someone broke my tank, and contrary to very popular belief, **I can live outside the tank for a rather long time**." replied Aaroniero, who for some reason was glaring at Nnoitra, who tried to force an innocent expression and failed miserably.

Di Roy wondered what Aaroniero could possibly know that the whole meeting together didn't know, after all, all he ever did was sit in his room and do nothing, at least he did until Cirucci and he had started dating.

"You all need to know something. This is not the first orginization that was known as the Espada. There was one before, and for reasons that were made clear to me by one of their number, they are back." stated Aaroniero. The room erupted into protest, but Starrk held up a hand for silence.

"How many are there?" asked Starrk.

"There will be eleven. Their names are, from eight to zero, Ulric Gangre, Vladimir, Tybalt Telupac, Lucion Grey, Jericho Cross, Lazarus Malkoth, Arkhan the Black, Veronica, Thorn and Thera the twin primera, and their leader, Jorad." said Aaroniero, waiting for more questions to be directed at him.

"Wait, you name Jericho and Lazarus seperatly, but from what I saw, they are one person, two sides of a coin, with Lazarus being Jericho's release." pointed out Starrk. At this point Di Roy had no clue what was going on, and did not interupt. Sun-sun moved closer to him, and he put his arm around her, kissing her on the top of her head. He knew she was smiling, and most likely blushing.

"What you saw was not Jericho's full release. He never had the time to fully gather the strength that he needed to do so. He, for some reason, must have been lacking the deadlight prism, which acts as a focus for the power, and also a sort of battery, feeding him the power to release, and at the same time catching the outflow of power of his release, storing it for the next time."

"As to the two of them being one, there is actually a story about that. It goes like this."

"Once, long ago, in the land of the humans, there lived two beings, one a human outlaw, the other a monster beyond compare. The monster was a foul thing, partaking in the blood of humans, and making slaves of the dead, but it had not always been so. Once, the monster was a great leader of men, who hunted evil in all of its forms. But in his time, he grew proud of his accomplishments, for evil was nearly extinct in the land. But from this pride, the man grew into conceit and arrogance, and the ever presant lust for power that lies in the hearts of all men took control of him. So, setting out alone, he hunted down the last great demon in the land, and forced it into a cave with his prowess in battle. From there, the plan had been to seal the demon inside using barrels of crude explosives to collapse the entrance to the cave."

"But this was not to be, for from its place in the cave, the demon reached out with honey coated words of treachery, preying on the failings of humanity itself in order to further its foul purpose, for a demon needs a human host in order to be at the height of its power, and the man had killed his previous host before driving it into the cave. So it was that the demon lured the man into its lair, feigning having some great piece of knowlage to impart before it was sealed away. But within the cave, the power of the demon's words grew to a dreadful cresendo. No one knew what happened in that cave, save for the fact that both the man and the demon had disappeared, replaced by the monster. For almost two hundred years he roamed free, until he was captured by the remnants of the very orginization that he had once headed."

"Now this is where the outlaw enters our tale. He was a gunslinger, one of the stereotypical renegades of the west. He shot anyone that pleased him, and a good deal of those that did not. The outlaw, despite his young age, had behind him a long trail of robbery and revenge, so much so that people just learned to stay out of his way at all costs. But then, one day, he vanished from his hidout in a small village. All of the people knew what that meant, that the outlaw had found a train to rob."

"And indeed he had, but the train he found was not the one that he had hoped. It was not loaded with gold and jewels, but with the monster. But he, blissfully unaware as he lit the fuse on his dynamite to blow open the safe on the treasure car, with thoughts of his newfound riches dancing in his head, was too late to stop the horror he would unleash."

"It was strange that the monster did not kill the outlaw. Maybe it was by some twisted sense of gratitude that the monster only stole his soul. From then on, the two of them were bitter enemies, for the monster had stolen the outlaw's soul, and on top of that killed his lover. In return, the outlaw joined with the orginization that had captured the monster, and assisted them in foiling the monster's plans at every turn."

"Back and forth the struggle between them went for almost a year. Until finally, the monster had had enough of the outlaw's meddling and confronted him. The battle between the two was titanic, enough to level the surrounding area, and no one knows for sure what happened there, only that both the monster and the outlaw lay dead."

"And from there they became hollows." said Starrk, who thought it was an interesting tale by the look on his face. Di Roy could see where Aaroniero was leading them. The fight between the two must have carried over to hollwdom, and when they had regained their intelligence as Adjuchas they had remembered their old hatred.

"The fight continued in Hueco Mundo, didn't it?" asked Di Roy.

"Yes, it did. The pair found each other again when they were both Vasto Lorde, and there was blood between them still. A week long battle ensued, niether power able to overwhelm the other. And during this battle is where the two of them became one soul. Appearantly, during that battle, the two of them finally ran out of power and collapsed on each other, unable to move, and that the two of them just grew together, becoming an arrancar in the process. And that is the story of Jericho and Lazarus." finished Aaroniero, standing up.

"Hey, night light! Da fuck do ya think yer goin?" piped up Nnoitra, who by some miracle had remained silent throughout the telling of the tale. Or maybe it was just Nel's grim face as she listened.

"To get this damn tank fixed." was all he said before Cirucci walked out with him. The doors slammed shut, leaving the assembled arrancar in silence.

"What now?" ventured Yammy.

"Now? Now we wait for him to come back. It looks like Aaroniero knows more than we ever thought he did." stated Starrk. "But I think there is someone here that has some explaining to do in the meantime. Di Roy, how is it that you came to be fighting someone who felt remarkably like Grimmjow?"

It was the question that Di Roy had been prepared to answer ever since Aaroniero had finished his tale.

"Honestly, I'm not sure. It might just have to be one more thing that we have to wait for Aaroneiro to explain." said Di Roy. The doors slammed open again, but this time, when everyone expected Aaroniero to be back and start giving up answers, a most unexpected face met their stares with dead green eyes.

"Perhaps I can answer your questions. After all, Aaroniero was not the only one to spend time amongst the original espada." said Ulquiorra.

**A/N: So Im back. After so long, I have returned to lead you. Now that its summer, the chapters will begin to roll out again. It really kind of disappoints me that I was only able to update twice during the school year. But I think I will be able to finish the story before summer is done.**

** Anyway, now the original espada are being explained in this chapter, which will be split into about nine parts, one for each of the espada. So if there is one of my espada in particular that you want to know about, drop a reveiw or pm me with your favorite for chapter 11 part 2.**

** Until next time.**


	12. Chapter 11 part 2

**Aaro: Disclaimer. I own nothing of bleach.**

_Nierro: Don't we usually have something to say before the disclaimer?_

**Aaro: Yes.**

_Nierro: Are we going to-_

**Aaro: No.**

Chapter 11 part 2

Findor stalked the halls of Las Noches. He had just woken up in one of the clean beds maintained by the arrancar nurses, and had immediatly broke free of the nine nurses that had attempted to keep him in bed. He even recognised the nurse that had delivered the news about Loly to him, foremost in the group that had attempted to hold him down. Nonetheless he had broken free, and perhaps seeing that there was nothing in fact wrong with him, the nurses had given up.

Now he was on a mission. Before he had...died? been knocked out?, he had been in Loly's room, silently watching her sleep, while she had been in the grip of a nightmare. After that, all he remembered was that cowboy wannabe kicking his ass, and pain. But there remained one question, and that was what had become of Loly?

And so Findor walked, making as close to a beeline as possible to her room. The nurses had said that nothing had been reported as to whether Loly had been injured, but that did not stop Findor's mind from cooking up twisted images of her lying butchered in her room as she slept. The thought made him move faster.

He rounded a corner, and what he saw shocked him. The door of Loly's door hung open, a severed rope hanging from the frame. Dried blood caked the floor where it had pooled. But dominating the scene was a massive hole in the wall, about three feet from the door. Findor rushed to the door, and looked in. The sheets on the bed were rumpled, and one of the pillows had tumbled to the floor. He also discovered that the blood beneath his feet was not dried, but still tacky, sticking to his shoes like glue.

It was clear that Loly would not stay here. The place was wrecked, and she liked her privacy, and the giant hole kind of made it hard to keep eyes out. Now the question was where she would go. There were plenty of old rooms in this place, literally hundreds of them, all abandoned and ready to take on new tenants. But that was too much ground to cover.

Loly didn't have many friends to speak of. Her personality was acidic at best, and it kept most of the people she did meet at arm's length. There were, however, a few people in Las Noches that Loly was known to be close with. But Findor only knew where one was. And it would not be a pleasant to see her. The two of them had...history, to say the least.

Findor continued down the hall, and went up two flights of stairs, crossing over the throne room until he came to a door with a crack going down the very center. The difference from the other perfectly symetrical door in Las Noches was caused by Findor's last encounter with the woman who dwelled in this place. But that was a month ago, she would have cooled off by now...

He raised a hand, and tapped on the door, three times. He waited for a full minute before he raised it again, and at that second, the door was thrown open. Findor was now face to face with Melony. His ex-girlfriend. She glared at him, and if Melony could breath fire, then Findor would have seriously considered getting the hell out of here.

"What do you want?" she asked icily, not bothering to greet him. Findor swallowed hard. She had cooled down all right, instead of fiery anger she was giving him glacial resentment. He wasn't sure which he prefferred.

"Have you seen Loly anywhere?" he asked, getting straight to the point so that he could leave. Seeing Melony was bringing back bad memories. Her face tightened as she considered.

"Why? Is she your new bitch? If so I don't want to help you track down your next fuck, Findor." She started to slam the door in his face, but he wedged his foot in the jamb, and forced his way into her room. Melony was none too pleased with this development.

"What gives you the right to just barge in here? I already gave you all of your stuff back, you ass!" Findor sighed. There really was no changing some people. Melony had always had a temper when it came to her ex-boyfriends, although at the time he had learned this, he had no idea that he would one day be a target of her wrath.

"Look, we arn't dating. I'm looking for her because, in case you failed to notice, Las Noches was stormed about an hour ago! I haven't seen her since the start of the attack, and I was wondering if she would have come here for shelter." Melony sighed, almost as if resigning herself to the fact that Findor was not leaving until his question was answered.

"You know that Loly and I haven't been talking much lately. She got distant about two months ago. She sat in her room all day, missed meals, and started thinking that picking fights with Nnoitra was a good idea. I tried to talk about it, but she kept on dodging the topic." Knowing what he knew now, Findor could easily tell why she would do those things. He thought about telling Melony about Aizen, but thought better of it when he thought that Loly had never told Melony about it herself. It simply wasn't his secret to give.

"Fine, but if you see her, be sure to tell me. Or if you're going to be your typical bitch of a self, then at least tell someone who will tell me." Findor left the room in a black mood. He didn't wait to hear her angry retort, but he started off toward the second person on his list, the man who had dragged him to the nurses, Kaname Tosen.

Everyone assembled in the meeting room had their eyes fixed on Ulquiorra as he took a seat next to Starrk. Di Roy held Sun-sun a little tighter as she shuddered a little. Di Roy didn't blame her for the response. The temperature in the room seemed to drop a few degrees with the fourth's presance.

"Let me start this off by saying that everything that has transpired here today is entirely the fault of that piece of trash sitting there." said Ulquiorra, pointing a finger firmly at Szayelapporo, who started.

"What in god's name did I do?" demanded Szayel, standing up.

"Yes, what did he do?" asked Starrk.

"He developed that wretched Gabriel Process. He allowed Jorad to copy the technique. And because of that, Jorad was able to revive all of the original espada, along with those of us who died in battle with the soul reapers." explained Ulquiorra, who leaned back in his chair as Szayel got red in the face.

"Impossible! There is simply no way that anyone could have stolen my greatest technique! There must be another explaination!" After that, Di Roy's ears were assulted by the howling of multiple espada, each one either yelling at Ulquiorra or at Szayel, the former of which sat impassively, the latter who screamed back at the others.

Then the doors opened again. Aaroniero stood with Cirucci, both staring in astonishment at how far the espada had fallen into madness in the last ten or fifteen minutes. Cirucci facepalmed as Aaroniero strode up to the head of the table. Starrk failed to notice him, as he was hollering for silence. It took a swift cuff to the back of the head by Harribel to Nnoitra, and for that cuff to be passed around the table, for the espada to realise that the Noveno and his girlfriend had returned.

"**Thank you, Tia. As you can see, now that you are no longer bickering like children, I have returned to answer your questions.** Now, what is it you want to know?" asked Aaroniero. Harribel leaped on the chance.

"Grey. Tell me about that son of a whore." she hissed. Mila Rose and Apacci patted her on the shoulder as a tear leaked out of her eye. Aaroniero's top head bobbed in his newly restored tank, what Di Roy supposed was a nod.

"Lucion Grey, whose aspect is hatred. **He had, or should I say has, a reputation as a spiteful bastard.** I spent as little time around him as possible, but I do know a few things about him. As you most likely know from fighting him, **Grey can regenerate, much like his friend Ulric, but faster, and there is no limit to how much he can do so.**" Aaroniero started, and Di Roy watched as Harribel leaned forward in her seat, listening to every word that was said.

"It was his job in the espada to venture out and drive off any hollows wandering in the human world. **He was the perfect candidate for the position, because his release form was, is, fearsome to behold**. He, like Jericho, prefers a head on, no holds barred fighting style. He can afford to take all of the damage that he wanted, seeing as no one could ever kill him, at least not until **Aizen showed up. I was not present for Grey's destruction, so I cannot say for sure how Aizen did the deed**. I can only guess that he obliterated Grey with high level kido." Di Roy decided that he would never be able to understand what was being said, he had only seen one of the original espada, and that was Grey. Wait never mind. The one called Arkhan the Black had subdued Grey. Di Roy decided that Arkhan would be his question.

"He was only ever freinds with one other espada, and that was Ulric Gangre, who I had the pleasure of killing today. **He has almost no people skills, but finds sick humor from the suffering and fear of others.** He was often absent from meetings, off somewhere in hueco mundo with Ulric and whatever they had found to kill that day."

"But where is he, where does he live? Is there any other way to kill him?" asked Harribel. Aaroniero shook one of his heads slowly.

"**As to where he lives, there is a network of caves that was his haunt long ago, as no other espada wanted his company, but I doubt Jorad would allow him to stay there in a time of war.** That, however, is where I would start. And I know of no way to kill him. I had believed it impossible." said Aaroniero, looking to Cirucci as if to see if she had ideas. She held up her hands.

"My only other guess would be La Ruta Iluminada. But that place has been abandoned ever since Aizen killed Jorad and Vladimir. It is bound to be a wreck by now." she offered.

"Where is it?" asked Tia.

**"Far to the south, lodged in a mountain with only one path leading to it**. Don't even try to go there. There is a reason that it is abandoned. When he left the corpses of our comrades, he left the Imagifier, the guardian of the path. **He was an adjuchas class hollow so powerful that it even gave Aizen pause at the time.** I dared to venture back to La Ruta once, about a year ago. The imagifier left me alone, **for even after all of that time, it recognised me. And as Cirucci has said, the castle was abandoned.** There was nothing, not even the smallest hollow. Although, if Jorad has returned, he would not leave La Ruta behind." Harribel withered at this news. With a hollow as strong as this Imagifier, and then Grey to deal with, there was obviously no way she could have her revenge yet.

Di Roy looked away from Harribel. It was hard to look at her face with that expression. Soon, Mila Rose lifted her by the elbow and she and Apacci led her out of the room. Sun-Sun stayed by his side, and he was grateful for it. He was very uncomfortable now that the pool of friendly faces was beginning to dry up.

"You mentioned that Grey had a role within the espada. Did Jericho have one?" asked Starrk.

"**Yes, all of the originals had a task to proform. Jericho rent the souls of humans who deserved punishment.** It was sightings of Lazarus by humans who had slight stirrings of riatsu that inspired the human interpretation of demons." explianed Aaroniero, while Starrk steepled his fingers.

"My one question is how are we going to fight them if they attack again?" said Starrk. "Even with Ulquiorra with us now, they have Barragan if what Ulquiorra says is true."

**"I don't know."** answered Aaroniero. Silence decended over the espada like a black pall. Nel clutched Nnoitra's arm, and Ulquiorra's eyes shifted over to Aaroniero.

"There is another thing. Jorad has proven that Arrancar are not the only ones that can be revived by the Gabriel process. Kurosaki Ichigo, who was killed by Yammy, has also been brought back. He alone is enough to deal with any two espada at once." he said. The eyes of everyone in the room locked on the fourth.

"Things just keep on getting worse for us. At this rate, this maniac will have a fucking army!" yelled Szayel.

"Thanks ta ya, dumbfuck." spat Nnoitra. Szayel looked over at the fifth and was about to say something back, but Di Roy slapped a hand on the table.

"This is not the time to fight with each other!" he yelled at the both of them. Szayel's response died, and Nnoitra looked at Di Roy as if he had grown a second head.

"It doesn't matter whose fault it is that this Jorad can get his hands on an army. What matters is that we survive this. So both of you shut the hell up and help come up with something that will actually be useful!" Silence fell again.

"Thank you Di Roy. Now it's obvious that we need help here. So, who do we have? Are there any other Arrancar that are not on his side?" asked Starrk.

"Well, I can't speak as to Arrancar, but I think we can help a little." said a female voice from door. Aaroniero looked over to see none other than three soul reapers standing there. And one was not just any soul reaper. This one inspired mixed feelings in Aaroniero, most of them coming from Kaien Shiba's memories. Kuchiki Rukia.

His life just got more complicated...again.


End file.
